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This is a list of notable
inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
s.


Alphabetical list


A

* Vitaly Abalakov (1906–1986), Russia – camming devices, Abalakov thread (or V-thread), gearless ice climbing anchor *
Ernst Karl Abbe Ernst Karl Abbe HonFRMS (23 January 1840 – 14 January 1905) was a German physicist, optical scientist, entrepreneur, and social reformer. Together with Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss, he developed numerous optical instruments. He was also a co- ...
(1840–1905), Germany –
Condenser (microscope) A condenser is an optical lens which renders a divergent beam from a point source into a parallel or converging beam to illuminate an object. Condensers are an essential part of any imaging device, such as microscopes, enlargers, slide projecto ...
, apochromatic lens, refractometer *
Hovannes Adamian Hovhannes (Ivan) Abgari Adamian (5 February 1879 – 12 September 1932) was an Armenian engineer, an author of more than 20 inventions. The first experimental color television was shown in London in 1928 based on Adamian's tricolor principle, and ...
(1879–1932), USSR/
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
– tricolor principle of the
color television Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white ...
* Samuel W. Alderson (1914–2005), U.S. –
Crash test dummy A crash test dummy, or simply dummy, is a full-scale anthropomorphic test device (ATD) that simulates the dimensions, weight proportions and articulation of the human body during a traffic collision. Dummies are used by researchers, automobile ...
* Alexandre Alexeieff (1901–1982), Russia/France – Pinscreen animation (with his wife
Claire Parker Claire Parker (August 31, 1906 – October 3, 1981) was an American engineer and animator. A graduate of MIT, her best-known contribution to the history of cinema is the Pinscreen (''Écran d'épingles''), a vertically-mounted grid of between 24 ...
) * Rostislav Alexeyev (1916–1980), Russia/USSR –
Ekranoplan A ground-effect vehicle (GEV), also called a wing-in-ground-effect (WIG), ground-effect craft, wingship, flarecraft or ekranoplan (russian: экранопла́н – "screenglider"), is a vehicle that is able to move over the surface by gainin ...
* Randi Altschul (born 1960), U.S. – Disposable
cellphone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...
*
Bruce Ames Bruce Nathan Ames (born December 16, 1928) is an American biochemist. He is a professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and was a senior scientist at Children's Hospital Oakland Research ...
(born 1928), U.S. – Ames test (Cell biology) * Giovanni Battista Amici (1786–1863), Italy – Dipleidoscope,
Amici prism An Amici prism, named for the astronomer Giovanni Battista Amici, is a type of compound dispersive prism used in spectrometers. The Amici prism consists of two triangular prisms in contact, with the first typically being made from a medium-d ...
* Ruth Amos (born 1989), UK – StairSteady * Mary Anderson (1866–1953), U.S. – windshield wiper blade *
Momofuku Ando , was an inventor and businessman who founded Nissin Food Products Co., Ltd. He is known as the inventor of instant noodles (ramen noodles) and the creator of the brands Top Ramen and Cup Noodles. Early life and education Ando was born Go Pe ...
(1910–2007), Japan –
Instant noodles Instant noodles, or instant ramen, is a type of food consisting of noodles sold in a precooked and dried block with flavoring powder and/or seasoning oil. The dried noodle block was originally created by flash frying cooked noodles, and this is ...
*
Hal Anger Hal Oscar Anger (May 20, 1920 – October 31, 2005) was an American electrical engineer and biophysicist at Donner Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, known for his invention of the gamma camera. In all, Anger held 15 patents, many o ...
(1920–2005), U.S. – Well counter (radioactivity measurements),
gamma camera A gamma camera (γ-camera), also called a scintillation camera or Anger camera, is a device used to image gamma radiation emitting radioisotopes, a technique known as scintigraphy. The applications of scintigraphy include early drug development ...
* Anders Knutsson Ångström (1888–1981), Sweden –
Pyranometer A pyranometer is a type of actinometer used for measuring solar irradiance on a planar surface and it is designed to measure the solar radiation flux density (W/m2) from the hemisphere above within a wavelength range 0.3 μm to 3 μm. The name pyr ...
*
Ottomar Anschütz Ottomar Anschütz (16 May 1846, in Lissa – 30 May 1907, in Berlin) was a German inventor, photographer, and chronophotographer Career Anschütz studied photography between 1864 and 1868 under the well-known photographers Ferdinand Beyrich (B ...
(1846–1907), Germany – single-curtain focal-plane shutter,
electrotachyscope The Elektrischen Schnellseher (literally "Electrical Quick-Viewer") or Electrotachyscope was an early motion picture system developed by chronophotographer Ottomar Anschütz between 1886 and 1894. He made at least seven different versions of the m ...
*
Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe Hermann Franz Joseph Hubertus Maria Anschütz-Kaempfe (3 October 1872 – 6 May 1931) was a German art historian and inventor. He was born in Zweibrücken and died in Munich. In his quest to navigate to the North Pole by submarine, he becam ...
(1872–1931), Germany –
Gyrocompass A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth (or another planetary body if used elsewhere in the universe) to find geographical direction automatically. The use of a gyro ...
*
Virginia Apgar Virginia Apgar (June 7, 1909August 7, 1974) was an American physician, obstetrical anesthesiologist and medical researcher, best known as the inventor of the Apgar Score, a way to quickly assess the health of a newborn child immediately after bir ...
(1909–1974), U.S. –
Apgar score The Apgar score is a quick way for doctors to evaluate the health of all newborns at 1 and 5 minutes after birth and in response to resuscitation. It was originally developed in 1952 by an anesthesiologist at Columbia University, Virginia Apgar, ...
(for newborn babies) *
Nicolas Appert Nicolas Appert (17 November 1749 – 1 June 1841) was the French inventor of airtight food preservation. Appert, known as the " father of Food Science", was a confectioner. Appert described his invention as a way "of conserving all kinds of foo ...
(1749–1841), France – canning ( food preservation) using glass bottles, see also Peter Durand * Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC), Greece –
Archimedes' screw The Archimedes screw, also known as the Archimedean screw, hydrodynamic screw, water screw or Egyptian screw, is one of the earliest hydraulic machines. Using Archimedes screws as water pumps (Archimedes screw pump (ASP) or screw pump) dates bac ...
*
Guido of Arezzo Guido of Arezzo ( it, Guido d'Arezzo; – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had a ma ...
(c. 991–c. 1033), Italy – Guidonian notation, see
musical notation Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation f ...
and also
staff (music) In Western musical notation, the staff (US and UK)"staff" in the Colli ...
* Ami Argand (1750–1803), France –
Argand lamp The Argand lamp is a type of oil lamp invented in 1780 by Aimé Argand. Its output is 6 to 10 candelas, brighter than that of earlier lamps. Its more complete combustion of the candle wick and oil than in other lamps required much less frequent ...
*
William George Armstrong William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, (26 November 1810 – 27 December 1900) was an English engineer and industrialist who founded the Armstrong Whitworth manufacturing concern on Tyneside. He was also an eminent scientist, inventor ...
(1810–1900), UK –
hydraulic accumulator A hydraulic accumulator is a pressure storage reservoir in which an incompressible hydraulic fluid is held under pressure that is applied by an external source of mechanical energy. The external source can be an engine, a spring, a raised weigh ...
*
Neil Arnott Dr Neil Arnott FRS LLD (15 May 1788March 1874) was a Scottish physician and inventor. He was the inventor of one of the first forms of the waterbed, the Arnott waterbed, and was awarded the Rumford Medal in 1852 for the construction of th ...
(1788–1874), UK –
waterbed A waterbed, water mattress, or flotation mattress is a bed or mattress filled with water. Waterbeds intended for medical therapies appear in various reports through the 19th century. The modern version, invented in San Francisco and patented in ...
* Joseph Aspdin (1788–1855), UK – Portland cement * John Vincent Atanasoff (1903–1995), Bulgaria/U.S. – electronic digital computer * Marcel Audiffren, France – refrigeration, patent


B

*
Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...
(1791–1871), UK –
Analytical engine The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, which was a design ...
(semi-automatic) * Tabitha Babbit (1779–1853), U.S. –
Saw mill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
circular saw A circular saw is a power-saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. ''Cir ...
* Victor Babeș (1854–1926), Romania –
Babesia ''Babesia'', also called ''Nuttallia'', is an apicomplexan parasite that infects red blood cells and is transmitted by ticks. Originally discovered by the Romanian bacteriologist Victor Babeș in 1888, over 100 species of ''Babesia'' have since ...
, the founder of serum therapy *
Leo Baekeland Leo Hendrik Baekeland (November 14, 1863 – February 23, 1944) was a Belgian chemist. He is best known for the inventions of Velox photographic paper in 1893, and Bakelite in 1907. He has been called "The Father of the Plastics Industry" ...
(1863–1944), Belgian–American – Velox photographic paper and
Bakelite Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, better known as Bakelite ( ), is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was devel ...
*
Ralph H. Baer Ralph Henry Baer (born Rudolf Heinrich Baer; March 8, 1922 – December 6, 2014) was a German-American inventor, game developer, and engineer. Baer's family fled Germany just before World War II and Baer served the American war effort, gai ...
(1922–2014), German born American –
video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...
*
Adolf von Baeyer Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (; 31 October 1835 – 20 August 1917) was a German chemist who synthesised indigo and developed a nomenclature for cyclic compounds (that was subsequently extended and adopted as part of the IUPAC or ...
(1835–1917), Germany –
Fluorescein Fluorescein is an organic compound and dye based on the xanthene tricyclic structural motif, formally belonging to triarylmethine dyes family. It is available as a dark orange/red powder slightly soluble in water and alcohol. It is widely use ...
, synthetic
Indigo dye Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color. Historically, indigo was a natural dye extracted from the leaves of some plants of the ''Indigofera'' genus, in particular '' Indigofera tinctoria''; dye-bearing ''Indigofera'' pl ...
,
Phenolphthalein Phenolphthalein ( ) is a chemical compound with the formula C20 H14 O4 and is often written as "HIn", "HPh", "phph" or simply "Ph" in shorthand notation. Phenolphthalein is often used as an indicator in acid–base titrations. For this applic ...
*
John Logie Baird John Logie Baird FRSE (; 13 August 188814 June 1946) was a Scottish inventor, electrical engineer, and innovator who demonstrated the world's first live working television system on 26 January 1926. He went on to invent the first publicly demo ...
(1888–1946), Scotland – World's first working
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
, 26 January 1926 and electronic
colour television Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white ...
* Abi Bakr of Isfahan (c. 1235), Persia/ Iran – mechanical
gear A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic pr ...
ed
astrolabe An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستاره‌یاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...
with
lunisolar calendar A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the ...
* George Ballas (1925–2011), U.S. – String trimmer *
Frederick Banting Sir Frederick Grant Banting (November 14, 1891 – February 21, 1941) was a Canadian medical scientist, physician, painter, and Nobel laureate noted as the co-discoverer of insulin and its therapeutic potential. In 1923, Banting and Joh ...
(1891–1941), Canada – Insulin * Vladimir Baranov-Rossine (1888–1944), Russia/France – Optophonic Piano * John Barber (1734–1801), UK – gas turbine *
John Bardeen John Bardeen (; May 23, 1908 – January 30, 1991) was an American physicist and engineer. He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the ...
(1908–1991), U.S. – co-inventor of the transistor, with Brattain and Schockley * Vladimir Barmin (1909–1993), Russia – first rocket
launch complex A launch pad is an above-ground facility from which a rocket-powered missile or space vehicle is vertically launched. The term ''launch pad'' can be used to describe just the central launch platform (mobile launcher platform), or the entire ...
(
spaceport A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching or receiving spacecraft, by analogy to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft. The word ''spaceport'', and even more so ''cosmodrome'', has traditionally been used for sites capable ...
) * Anthony R. Barringer (1925–2009), Canada/U.S. – INPUT (Induced Pulse Transient) airborne electromagnetic system *
Earl W. Bascom Earl Wesley Bascom (June 19, 1906 – August 28, 1995) was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, cowboy, rodeo performer, inventor, and Hollywood actor. Raised in Canada, he portrayed in works of fine art his own experiences of cowboyin ...
(1906–1995), Canada/U.S. – rodeo bucking chute (1916 and 1919), rodeo bronc saddle (1922), rodeo bareback rigging (1924), rodeo riding chaps (1926) *
Nikolay Basov Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov (russian: Никола́й Генна́диевич Ба́сов; 14 December 1922 – 1 July 2001) was a Soviet physicist and educator. For his fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics that led to the dev ...
(1922–2001), Russia – co-inventor of
laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The f ...
and
maser A maser (, an acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves through amplification by stimulated emission. The first maser was built by Charles H. Townes, Jame ...
* Patricia Bath (1942–2019), U.S. - inventor of laser cataract surgery *
Émile Baudot Jean-Maurice-Émile Baudot (; 11 September 1845 – 28 March 1903), French telegraph engineer and inventor of the first means of digital communication Baudot code, was one of the pioneers of telecommunications. He invented a multiplexed print ...
(1845–1903), France –
Baudot code The Baudot code is an early character encoding for telegraphy invented by Émile Baudot in the 1870s. It was the predecessor to the International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2 (ITA2), the most common teleprinter code in use until the advent of ASCII. ...
* Eugen Baumann (1846–1896), Germany – PVC *
Trevor Baylis Trevor Graham Baylis (13 May 1937 – 5 March 2018) was an English inventor best known for the wind-up radio. The radio, instead of relying on batteries or external electrical source, is powered by the user winding a crank. This stores energy ...
(1937–2018), UK – a wind-up radio *
Maria Beasley Maria E. Beasley (''née'' Hauser; 1836–1913) was an American entrepreneur and inventor. Born in North Carolina, Beasley grew up with a strong interest in mechanical work and learned about the profession of barrel-making from her grandfather. ...
(1847–1904), U.S. – barrel-hooping machine, improved
life raft A lifeboat or liferaft is a small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship. Lifeboat drills are required by law on larger commercial ships. Rafts ( liferafts) are also used. In the m ...
* Francis Beaufort (1774–1857), Ireland/UK –
Beaufort scale The Beaufort scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort wind force scale. History The scale was devised in 1805 by the Irish hydrographer Francis Beaufo ...
, Beaufort cipher * Hans Beck (1929–2009), Germany – inventor of
Playmobil Playmobil () is a German line of toys produced by the Brandstätter Group (Geobra Brandstätter GmbH & Co KG), headquartered in Zirndorf, Germany. The signature Playmobil toy is a tall (1:24 scale) human figure with a smiling face. A wide rang ...
toys *
Arnold O. Beckman Arnold Orville Beckman (April 10, 1900 – May 18, 2004) was an American chemist, inventor, investor, and philanthropist. While a professor at California Institute of Technology, he founded Beckman Instruments based on his 1934 invention of th ...
(1900–2004), U.S. – electric pH meter *
Vladimir Bekhterev Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev ( rus, Влади́мир Миха́йлович Бе́хтерев, p=ˈbʲextʲɪrʲɪf; January 20, 1857 – December 24, 1927) was a Russian neurologist and the father of objective psychology. He is best know ...
(1857–1927), Russia – Bekhterev's Mixture * Josip Belušić (1847–1905), Croatia – electric
speedometer A speedometer or speed meter is a gauge that measures and displays the instantaneous speed of a vehicle. Now universally fitted to motor vehicles, they started to be available as options in the early 20th century, and as standard equipment ...
*
Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and T ...
(1847–1922), UK, Canada, and U.S. – telephone *
Nikolay Benardos Nikolay Nikolayevich Benardos (russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Бенардо́с) (1842–1905) was a Russian inventor of Greek origin who in 1881 introduced carbon arc welding, which was the first practical arc welding method. ...
(1842–1905),
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...
arc welding Arc welding is a welding process that is used to join metal to metal by using electricity to create enough heat to melt metal, and the melted metals, when cool, result in a binding of the metals. It is a type of welding that uses a welding powe ...
(specifically
carbon arc welding Carbon arc welding (CAW) is a process which produces coalescence of metals by heating them with an arc between a non-consumable carbon ( graphite) electrode and the work-piece. It was the first arc-welding process developed but is not used for ma ...
, the first arc welding method) * Ruth R. Benerito (1916–2013), U.S. –
Permanent press Wrinkle-resistant or permanent press or durable press is a finishing method for textiles that avoids creases and wrinkles and provides a better appearance for the articles. Most cellulosic fabrics and blends of cellulosic rich fabrics tend to ...
(no-iron clothing) * Miriam Benjamin (1861–1947), Washington, D.C. – Gong and signal chair (adopted by House of Representatives and precursor to flight attendant signal system) * William R. Bennett Jr. (1930–2008), together with Ali Javan (1926–2016), U.S./Iran – Gas laser (Helium-Neon) * Melitta Bentz (1873–1950), Germany – paper
Coffee filter A coffee filter is a filter used for brewing coffee. Filters made of paper (disposable), or cloth, plastic, and metal (reusable) are used. The filter allows the liquid coffee to flow through, but traps the coffee grounds. Paper filters remove ...
*
Karl Benz Carl Friedrich Benz (; 25 November 1844 – 4 April 1929), sometimes also Karl Friedrich Benz, was a German engine designer and automotive engineer. His Benz Patent Motorcar from 1885 is considered the first practical modern automobile and fi ...
(1844–1929), Germany – the petrol-powered
automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...
* Hans Berger (1873–1941), Germany – first human
EEG Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex ...
and its development * Friedrich Bergius (1884–1949), Germany – Bergius process (synthetic fuel from coal) *
Emile Berliner Emile Berliner (May 20, 1851 – August 3, 1929) originally Emil Berliner, was a German-American inventor. He is best known for inventing the lateral-cut flat disc record (called a "gramophone record" in British and American English) used with a ...
(1851–1929), Germany and U.S. – the disc record gramophone *
Tim Berners-Lee Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He is a Professorial Fellow of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a prof ...
(born 1955), UK – with
Robert Cailliau Robert Cailliau (, born 26 January 1947) is a Belgian informatics engineer, computer scientist and author who proposed the first (pre-www) hypertext system for CERN in 1987 and collaborated with Tim Berners-Lee on the World Wide Web (jointly wi ...
, the
World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...
*
Marcellin Berthelot Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (; 25 October 1827 – 18 March 1907) was a French chemist and Republican politician noted for the ThomsenBerthelot principle of thermochemistry. He synthesized many organic compounds from inorganic substan ...
(1827–1907), France – Berthelot's reagent (chemistry) * Heinrich Bertsch (1897–1981), Germany – first fully synthetic laundry detergent "Fewa" (chemistry) * Charles Best (1899–1978), Canada – Insulin (chemistry) *
Max Bielschowsky Max Israel Bielschowsky (20 February 1869 – 15 August 1940) was a German neuropathologist born in Breslau. After receiving his medical doctorate from the University of Munich in 1893, he worked with Ludwig Edinger (1855–1918) at the ...
(1869–1940), Germany – Bielschowsky stain (histology) * Alfred Binet (1857–1911), France – with his student Théodore Simon (1872–1961), first practical Intelligence test * Lucio Bini (1908–1964), together with Ugo Cerletti (1877–1963), Italy –
Electroconvulsive therapy Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive the ...
*
Gerd Binnig Gerd Binnig (; born 20 July 1947) is a German physicist. He is most famous for having won the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Heinrich Rohrer in 1986 for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope. Early life and education Binnig w ...
(born 1947), with Christoph Gerber, Calvin Quate and
Heinrich Rohrer Heinrich Rohrer (6 June 1933 – 16 May 2013) was a Swiss physicist who shared half of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gerd Binnig for the design of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). The other half of the Prize was awarded to Ernst ...
, Germany/Switzerland/U.S. – Atomic force microscope and
Scanning tunneling microscope A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is a type of microscope used for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. Its development in 1981 earned its inventors, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, then at IBM Zürich, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986. ...
* Clarence Birdseye (1886–1956), U.S. – Flash freezing * László Bíró (1899–1985), Hungary –
Ballpoint pen A ballpoint pen, also known as a biro (British English), ball pen ( Hong Kong, Indian and Philippine English), or dot pen ( Nepali) is a pen that dispenses ink (usually in paste form) over a metal ball at its point, i.e. over a "ball point ...
* Thor Bjørklund (1889–1975), Norway – Cheese slicer *
J. Stuart Blackton James Stuart Blackton (January 5, 1875 – August 13, 1941) was a British-American film producer and director of the silent era. One of the pioneers of motion pictures, he founded Vitagraph Studios in 1897. He was one of the first filmmakers to ...
(1875–1941), U.S. –
Stop-motion film Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...
* Otto Blathy (1860–1939), Hungary – co-inventor of the
transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's ...
,
wattmeter The wattmeter is an instrument for measuring the electric active power (or the average of the rate of flow of electrical energy) in watts of any given circuit. Electromagnetic wattmeters are used for measurement of utility frequency and audio ...
,
alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in which ...
(AC) and turbogenerator *
John Blenkinsop John Blenkinsop (1783 – 22 January 1831) was an English mining engineer and an inventor of steam locomotives, who designed the first practical railway locomotive. He was born in Felling, County Durham, the son of a stonemason and was ap ...
(1783–1831), UK – Blenkinsop rack railway system * Charles K. Bliss (1897–1985), Austro-Hungary/Australia – Blissymbols * Katharine Burr Blodgett (1898–1979), U.S. – nonreflective glass * Alan Blumlein (1903–1942), UK – stereo *
David Boggs David Reeves Boggs (June 17, 1950 – February 19, 2022) was an American electrical and radio engineer who developed early prototypes of Internet protocols, file servers, gateways, network interface cards and, along with Robert Metcalfe and o ...
(1950–2022), U.S. – Ethernet *
Nils Bohlin Nils Ivar Bohlin (17 July 1920 – 21 September 2002) was a Swedish mechanical engineer and inventor who invented the three-point safety belt while working at Volvo. Biography Born in Härnösand, Sweden, Bohlin received a diploma in me ...
(1920–2002), Sweden – the three-point
seat belt A seat belt (also known as a safety belt, or spelled seatbelt) is a vehicle safety device designed to secure the driver or a passenger of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result during a collision or a sudden stop. A seat belt red ...
*
Sarah Boone Sarah Boone (née Sarah Marshall; 1832 – 1904) was an African-American inventor. On April 26, 1892, she obtained United States patent number 473,563 for her improvements to the ironing board. Boone's ironing board was designed to improve ...
(1832–1908), U.S. – improved ironing board design * Charlie Booth (1903–2008), Australia –
Starting blocks Starting blocks are a device used in the sport of track and field by sprint athletes to brace their feet against at the start of a race so they do not slip as they stride forward at the sound of the starter's pistol. The blocks also enable the ...
*
Sam Born Sam Born (September 10, 1891 – March 23, 1959) was an American businessman, candy maker and inventor. Biography Born to a Jewish family in Vinnitsia, Russian Empire (now Vinnytsia in Ukraine) under his original name Samuel Bernstein, they em ...
(1891–1959), Russia/U.S. –
lollipop A lollipop is a type of sugar candy usually consisting of hard candy mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking. Different informal terms are used in different places, including lolly, sucker, sticky-pop, etc. Lollipops are avail ...
-making machine * Jagdish Chandra Bose (1858–1937), India – Crescograph *
Matthew Piers Watt Boulton Matthew Piers Watt Boulton (22 September 1820 – 30 June 1894), also published under the pseudonym M. P. W. Bolton, was a British classicist, elected member of the UK's Metaphysical Society, an amateur scientist and an inventor, be ...
(1820–1894), UK –
aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...
* Seth Boyden (1788–1870), U.S. – nail-making machine * Herbert Boyer (born 1936), together with
Paul Berg Paul Berg (born June 30, 1926) is an American biochemist and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980, along with Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger. The award recognized their cont ...
(1926–), and Stanley Norman Cohen (1935–), U.S. – created first
Genetically modified organism A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, w ...
*
Willard Boyle Willard Sterling Boyle, (August 19, 1924May 7, 2011) was a Canadian physicist. He was a pioneer in the field of laser technology and co-inventor of the charge-coupled device. As director of Space Science and Exploratory Studies at Bellcomm he ...
(1924–2011) together with
George E. Smith George Elwood Smith (born May 10, 1930) is an American scientist, applied physicist, and co-inventor of the charge-coupled device (CCD). He was awarded a one-quarter share in the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for "the invention of an imaging semi ...
(born 1930), U.S. –
Charge-coupled device A charge-coupled device (CCD) is an integrated circuit containing an array of linked, or coupled, capacitors. Under the control of an external circuit, each capacitor can transfer its electric charge to a neighboring capacitor. CCD sensors are ...
(CCD) *
Hugh Bradner Hugh Bradner (November 5, 1915 – May 5, 2008) was an American physicist at the University of California who is credited with inventing the neoprene wetsuit, which helped to revolutionize scuba diving and surfing. A graduate of Ohio's Miami U ...
(1915–2008), U.S. –
Wetsuit A wetsuit is a garment worn to provide thermal protection while wet. It is usually made of foamed neoprene, and is worn by surfers, divers, windsurfers, canoeists, and others engaged in water sports and other activities in or on water. Its pu ...
* Louis Braille (1809–1852), France – Braille writing system, Braille musical notation * Jacques E. Brandenberger (1872–1954), Switzerland –
Cellophane Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria, and liquid water makes it useful for food packaging. Cellophane is highly permeable to water vapour, but may be coa ...
* Édouard Branly (1844–1940), France –
Coherer The coherer was a primitive form of radio signal detector used in the first radio receivers during the wireless telegraphy era at the beginning of the 20th century. Its use in radio was based on the 1890 findings of French physicist Édouard Bran ...
* Charles F. Brannock (1903–1992), U.S. – Brannock Device (shoe size) * Walter Houser Brattain (1902–1987), U.S.– co-inventor of the transistor *
Karl Ferdinand Braun Karl Ferdinand Braun (; 6 June 1850 – 20 April 1918) was a German electrical engineer, inventor, physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. Braun contributed significantly to the development of radio and television technology: he shared the ...
(1850–1918), Germany – cathode-ray tube
oscilloscope An oscilloscope (informally a scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. The main purposes are to display repetiti ...
* Stanislav Brebera (1925–2012), Czech Republic –
Semtex Semtex is a general-purpose plastic explosive containing RDX and PETN. It is used in commercial blasting, demolition, and in certain military applications. Semtex was developed and manufactured in Czechoslovakia, originally under the name B ...
explosive *
David Brewster Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE (11 December 178110 February 1868) was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics, ...
(1781–1868), UK – Kaleidoscope * Charles B. Brooks (1865–?), U.S. - first self-propelled street sweeping truck * Rachel Fuller Brown (1898–1980), U.S. –
Nystatin Nystatin, sold under the brandname Mycostatin among others, is an antifungal medication. It is used to treat '' Candida'' infections of the skin including diaper rash, thrush, esophageal candidiasis, and vaginal yeast infections. It may also be ...
, the world's first antifungal antibiotic * William C. Brown (1916–1999), U.S. –
Crossed-field amplifier A crossed-field amplifier (CFA) is a specialized vacuum tube, first introduced in the mid-1950s and frequently used as a microwave amplifier in very-high-power transmitters. Raytheon engineer William C. Brown's work to adapt magnetron principle ...
* Marie Van Brittan Brown (1922–1999), U.S. – home security system *
Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Bruhn (11 November 1853 – 1927) was a German inventor. Life Bruhn invented modern taximeter in Berlin. He worked for German company Westendarp & Pieper Hamburg. In 1920 he became leader of this company. Bruhn was ...
(1853–1927), Germany –
Taximeter A taximeter or fare meter is a mechanical or electronic device installed in taxicabs and auto rickshaws that calculates passenger fares based on a combination of distance travelled and waiting time. Its shortened form, "taxi", is also a metony ...
* Nikolay Brusentsov (1925–2014), USSR,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
ternary computer ('' Setun'') *
Dudley Allen Buck (Dr.) Dudley Allen Buck (1927–1959) was an electrical engineer and inventor of components for high-speed computing devices in the 1950s. He is best known for invention of the cryotron, a superconductive computer component that is operated in ...
(1927–1959), U.S. –
Cryotron The cryotron is a switch that operates using superconductivity. The cryotron works on the principle that magnetic fields destroy superconductivity. This simple device consists of two superconducting wires (e.g. tantalum and niobium) with differe ...
,
content-addressable memory Content-addressable memory (CAM) is a special type of computer memory used in certain very-high-speed searching applications. It is also known as associative memory or associative storage and compares input search data against a table of stored d ...
* Edwin Beard Budding (1795–1846), UK – lawnmower *
Gersh Budker Gersh Itskovich Budker (Герш Ицкович Будкер), also named Andrey Mikhailovich Budker (1 May 1918 – 4 July 1977), was a Soviet physicist, specialized in nuclear physics and accelerator physics. Biography He was elected a Corresp ...
(1918–1977), Russia –
electron cooling Electron cooling is a method to shrink the emittance (size, divergence, and energy spread) of a charged particle beam without removing particles from the beam. Since the number of particles remains unchanged and the space coordinates and their de ...
, co-inventor of
collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators. Colliders are used as a research tool in partic ...
* Edward Bull (1759–1798), England – Bull engine (a modified steam engine) *
Robert Bunsen Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (; 30 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The B ...
(1811–1899), Germany –
Bunsen burner A Bunsen burner, named after Robert Bunsen, is a kind of ambient air gas burner used as laboratory equipment; it produces a single open gas flame, and is used for heating, sterilization, and combustion. The gas can be natural gas (which is ...
* Henry Burden (1791–1871), Scotland and U.S. – Horseshoe machine, first usable iron railroad spike


C

*
Robert Cailliau Robert Cailliau (, born 26 January 1947) is a Belgian informatics engineer, computer scientist and author who proposed the first (pre-www) hypertext system for CERN in 1987 and collaborated with Tim Berners-Lee on the World Wide Web (jointly wi ...
(born 1947), Belgium – with
Tim Berners-Lee Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He is a Professorial Fellow of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a prof ...
, the
World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...
* Edward A. Calahan (1838–1912), U.S. – Stock
ticker tape Ticker tape was the earliest electrical dedicated financial communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use from around 1870 through 1970. It consisted of a paper strip that ran through a machine called ...
* Nicholas Callan (1799–1864), Ireland –
Induction coil An induction coil or "spark coil" (archaically known as an inductorium or Ruhmkorff coil after Heinrich Rühmkorff) is a type of electrical transformer used to produce high-voltage pulses from a low-voltage direct current (DC) supply. p.98 ...
* Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton (1863–1930), Scotland –
Television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
* Tullio Campagnolo (1901–1983), Italy – Quick release skewer * Charles Cantor (born 1942), U.S. –
Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis Pulsed field gel electrophoresis is a technique used for the separation of large DNA molecules by applying to a gel matrix an electric field that periodically changes direction. Historical background Standard gel electrophoresis techniques for ...
(molecular biology) * Mario Ramberg Capecchi (born 1937), together with Sir Martin John Evans (born 1941), and
Oliver Smithies Oliver Smithies (23 June 1925 – 10 January 2017) was a British-American geneticist and physical biochemist. He is known for introducing starch as a medium for gel electrophoresis in 1955, and for the discovery, simultaneously with Mario Capecc ...
(1925–2017), U.S. –
Gene targeting Gene targeting (also, replacement strategy based on homologous recombination) is a genetic technique that uses homologous recombination to modify an endogenous gene. The method can be used to delete a gene, remove exons, add a gene and modify ...
* Arturo Caprotti (1881–1938), Italy – Caprotti valve gear *
Gerolamo Cardano Gerolamo Cardano (; also Girolamo or Geronimo; french: link=no, Jérôme Cardan; la, Hieronymus Cardanus; 24 September 1501– 21 September 1576) was an Italian polymath, whose interests and proficiencies ranged through those of mathematician, ...
(1501–1576), Italy – Cardan grille (cryptography) * Philip Cardew (1851–1910), UK – Hot-wire
galvanometer A galvanometer is an electromechanical measuring instrument for electric current. Early galvanometers were uncalibrated, but improved versions, called ammeters, were calibrated and could measure the flow of current more precisely. A galvanom ...
* Chester Carlson (1906–1968), U.S. – Xerographic copier *
Wallace Carothers Wallace Hume Carothers (; April 27, 1896 – April 29, 1937) was an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont, who was credited with the invention of nylon. Carothers was a group leader at the DuPont Experiment ...
(1896–1937), U.S. – Nylon and
Neoprene Neoprene (also polychloroprene) is a family of synthetic rubbers that are produced by polymerization of chloroprene.Werner Obrecht, Jean-Pierre Lambert, Michael Happ, Christiane Oppenheimer-Stix, John Dunn and Ralf Krüger "Rubber, 4. Emulsion ...
(together with Arnold Collins) * Antonio Benedetto Carpano (1764–1815), Italy –
Vermouth Vermouth (, ) is an aromatized fortified wine, flavoured with various botanicals (roots, barks, flowers, seeds, herbs, and spices) and sometimes colored. The modern versions of the beverage were first produced in the mid- to late 18th c ...
*
Giovanni Caselli Giovanni Caselli (8 June 1815 – 25 April 1891) was an Italian priest, inventor, and physicist. He studied electricity and magnetism as a child which led to his invention of the pantelegraph (also known as the universal telegraph or all-purpos ...
(1815–1891), Italy/France –
Pantelegraph The pantelegraph (Italian: ''pantelegrafo''; French: ''pantélégraphe'') was an early form of facsimile machine transmitting over normal telegraph lines developed by Giovanni Caselli, used commercially in the 1860s, that was the first such de ...
*
George Cayley Sir George Cayley, 6th Baronet (27 December 1773 – 15 December 1857) was an English engineer, inventor, and aviator. He is one of the most important people in the history of aeronautics. Many consider him to be the first true scientific aer ...
(1773–1857), UK – tension-spoke wheels *
Anders Celsius Anders Celsius (; 27 November 170125 April 1744) was a Swedish astronomer, physicist and mathematician. He was professor of astronomy at Uppsala University from 1730 to 1744, but traveled from 1732 to 1735 visiting notable observatories in Ger ...
(1701–1744), Sweden –
Celsius The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The ...
temperature scale *
Vint Cerf Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of " the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Bob Kahn. He has received honorary degrees and awards that include t ...
(born 1943), together with
Bob Kahn Robert Elliot Kahn (born December 23, 1938) is an American electrical engineer who, along with Vint Cerf, first proposed the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), the fundamental communication protocols at the he ...
(1938–), U.S. –
Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet. ...
(IP) * Ugo Cerletti (1877–1963), together with Lucio Bini (1908–1964), Italy –
Electroconvulsive therapy Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive the ...
* Charles Chamberland (1851–1908), France – Chamberland filter *
Min Chueh Chang Min Chueh Chang (, October 10, 1908 – June 5, 1991), often credited as M.C. Chang, was a Chinese-American reproductive biologist. His specific area of study was the fertilisation process in mammalian reproduction. Though his career produced ...
(1908–1991), together with Gregory Goodwin Pincus (1903–1967), U.S./China –
Combined oral contraceptive pill The combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), often referred to as the birth control pill or colloquially as "the pill", is a type of birth control that is designed to be taken orally by women. The pill contains two important hormones: progesti ...
* Thomas Chang (born 1933), Canada/China – Artificial cell *
Emmett Chapman Emmett Chapman (September 28, 1936 – November 1, 2021) was an American jazz musician best known as the inventor of the Chapman Stick and maker of the Chapman Stick family of instruments. Career Chapman started his career as a guitarist, reco ...
(1936–2021), U.S. –
Chapman Stick The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and is used to play bass lines, melody lines, ...
*
Claude Chappe Claude Chappe (; 25 December 1763 – 23 January 1805) was a French inventor who in 1792 demonstrated a practical semaphore system that eventually spanned all of France. His system consisted of a series of towers, each within line of sight of ...
(1763–1805), France –
Semaphore line An optical telegraph is a line of stations, typically towers, for the purpose of conveying textual information by means of visual signals. There are two main types of such systems; the semaphore telegraph which uses pivoted indicator arms and ...
*
David Chaum David Lee Chaum (born 1955) is an American computer scientist, cryptographer, and inventor. He is known as a pioneer in cryptography and privacy-preserving technologies, and widely recognized as the inventor of digital cash. His 1982 dissertatio ...
(born 1955), U.S. –
Digital signatures A digital signature is a mathematical scheme for verifying the authenticity of digital messages or documents. A valid digital signature, where the prerequisites are satisfied, gives a recipient very high confidence that the message was created b ...
,
ecash Ecash was conceived by David Chaum as an anonymous cryptographic electronic money or electronic cash system in 1983. It was realized through his corporation Digicash and used as micropayment system at one US bank from 1995 to 1998. Design Chaum p ...
* Vladimir Chelomey (1914–1984), USSR – First
space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station ...
(
Salyut The ''Salyut'' programme (russian: Салют, , meaning "salute" or "fireworks") was the first space station programme, undertaken by the Soviet Union. It involved a series of four crewed scientific research space stations and two crewed m ...
) *
Pavel Cherenkov Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov (russian: Па́вел Алексе́евич Черенко́в ; July 28, 1904 – January 6, 1990) was a Soviet physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1958 with Ilya Frank and Igor Tamm for the discov ...
(1904–1990), USSRCherenkov detector *
Evgeniy Chertovsky Yevgeny Yefimovich Chertovsky (russian: Евгений Ефимович Чертовский; born February 15, 1902 - died 1961) was a Soviet Russian inventor who designed the first full pressure suit in Leningrad in 1931. Chertovsky, an engine ...
(1902-?), Russia –
pressure suit A pressure suit is a protective suit worn by high-altitude pilots who may fly at altitudes where the air pressure is too low for an unprotected person to survive, even breathing pure oxygen at positive pressure. Such suits may be either full-pr ...
* Alicia Chong Rodriguez - American engineer and inventor *
Ward Christensen Ward Christensen (born 1945 in West Bend, Wisconsin, United States) is the co-founder of the CBBS bulletin board, the first bulletin board system (BBS) ever brought online. Christensen, along with partner Randy Suess, members of the Chicago Area C ...
(born 1945), U.S. –
Bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such ...
*
Ole Kirk Christiansen Ole Kirk Kristiansen (7 April 1891 – 11 March 1958) was a Danish carpenter. In 1932, he founded the construction toy company The Lego Group. Over the course of his working life, Kristiansen developed his business from a small wood-worki ...
(1891–1958), Denmark – Creator of
Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocki ...
*
Samuel Hunter Christie Samuel Hunter Christie FRS (22 March 1784 – 24 January 1865) was a British physicist and mathematician. Life He studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he won the Smith's Prize and was second wrangler. He was particular ...
(1784–1865), UK –
Wheatstone bridge A Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit used to measure an unknown electrical resistance by balancing two legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown component. The primary benefit of the circuit is its ability to provide ...
*
Juan de la Cierva Juan de la Cierva y Codorníu, 1st Count of la Cierva (; 21 September 1895 in Murcia, Spain – 9 December 1936 in Croydon, United Kingdom) was a Spanish civil engineer, pilot and a self taught aeronautical engineer. His most famous accomplish ...
(1895–1936), Spain – the
autogyro An autogyro (from Ancient Greek, Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift (force), lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an ...
* Charles Clagget (1740–1795), UK – Improvements for musical instruments * Leland Clark (1918–2005), U.S. – Clark electrode (medicine) *
Georges Claude Georges Claude (24 September 187023 May 1960) was a French engineer and inventor. He is noted for his early work on the industrial liquefaction of air, for the invention and commercialization of neon lighting, and for a large experiment on genera ...
(1870–1960), France –
neon lamp A neon lamp (also neon glow lamp) is a miniature gas discharge lamp. The lamp typically consists of a small glass capsule that contains a mixture of neon and other gases at a low pressure and two electrodes (an anode and a cathode). When s ...
* Henri Marie Coandă (1886–1972), Romania –
Coandă effect The Coandă effect ( or ) is the tendency of a fluid jet to stay attached to a convex surface. '' Merriam-Webster'' describes it as "the tendency of a jet of fluid emerging from an orifice to follow an adjacent flat or curved surface and to e ...
*
Josephine Cochrane Josephine Garis Cochran (later Cochrane; March 8, 1839 – August 3, 1913) was an American inventor who was the inventor of the first commercially successful automatic dishwasher, which she designed in the shed behind her home; she then construct ...
(1839–1913), U.S. –
dishwasher A dishwasher is a machine that is used to clean dishware, cookware, and cutlery automatically. Unlike manual dishwashing, which relies heavily on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot water, ty ...
*
Christopher Cockerell Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell CBE RDI FRS (4 June 1910 – 1 June 1999) was an English engineer, best known as the inventor of the hovercraft. Early life and education Cockerell was born in Cambridge, where his father, Sir Sydney Cockere ...
(1910–1999), UK –
Hovercraft A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull, or air cushion, ...
* Aeneas Coffey (1780–1852), Ireland –
Coffey still A column still, also called a continuous still, patent still or Coffey still is a variety of still consisting of two columns. Column stills can produce rectified spirit (95% ABV). Description The first column (called the analyzer) in a column s ...
* Sir Henry Cole (1808–1882), UK –
Christmas card A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to Christmastide and the holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during ...
*
Samuel Colt Samuel Colt (; July 19, 1814 – January 10, 1862) was an American inventor, industrialist, and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (now Colt's Manufacturing Company) and made the mass production of ...
(1814–1862), U.S. – Revolver development * Sir William Congreve (1772–1828), UK –
Congreve rocket The Congreve rocket was a type of rocket artillery designed by British inventor Sir William Congreve in 1808. The design was based upon the rockets deployed by the Kingdom of Mysore against the East India Company during the Second, Third, ...
*
George Constantinescu George "Gogu" Constantinescu (; last name also Constantinesco; 4 October 1881 – 11 December 1965) was a Romanian scientist, engineer and inventor. During his career, he registered over 130 inventions. He is the creator of the '' theory of ...
(1881–1965), Romania – creator of the
theory of sonics The theory of sonics is a branch of continuum mechanics which describes the transmission of mechanical energy through vibrations. The birth of the theory of sonics is the publication of the book ''A treatise on transmission of power by vibration ...
, a new branch of
continuum mechanics Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuous mass rather than as discrete particles. The French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy was the first to formulate such ...
* Albert Coons (1912–1978), U.S. –
Immunofluorescence Immunofluorescence is a technique used for light microscopy with a fluorescence microscope and is used primarily on microbiological samples. This technique uses the specificity of antibodies to their antigen to target fluorescent dyes to speci ...
(microscopy) * Martin Cooper (born 1928), U.S. – Mobile phone * Harry Coover (1917–2011), U.S. – Super Glue *
Lloyd Groff Copeman Lloyd Groff Copeman (December 28, 1881 – July 5, 1956) was an American inventor who devised the first electric stove and the flexible rubber ice cube tray, among other products. He had nearly 700 patents to his name, and he claimed that he cou ...
(1865–1956), U.S. –
Electric stove An electric stove or electric range is a stove with an integrated electrical heating device to cook and bake. Electric stoves became popular as replacements for solid-fuel (wood or coal) stoves which required more labor to operate and maintain. ...
* Cornelis Corneliszoon (1550–1607), The Netherlands – wind powered
sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
*
Alexander Coucoulas Alexander Coucoulas is an American inventor, research engineer, and author. He was named "father of thermosonic bonding" by George Harman, the world's foremost authority on wire bonding, where he referenced Coucoulas's leading edge publications in h ...
(born 1933), U.S. –
Thermosonic bonding Thermosonic bonding is widely used to wire bond silicon integrated circuits into computers. Alexander Coucoulas was named "Father of Thermosonic Bonding" by George Harman, the world's foremost authority on wire bonding, where he referenced Coucoul ...
* Wallace H. Coulter (1913–1998), U.S. – Coulter principle *
Jacques Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung, open-circuit SCUBA ( self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). T ...
(1910–1997), France – co-inventor of the aqualung and the
Nikonos Nikonos is the brand name of a series of 35mm format cameras specifically designed for underwater photography launched by Nikon in 1963. The early Nikonos cameras were improvements of the Calypso camera, which was an original design by Jacques-Y ...
underwater camera * John "Jack" Higson Cover Jr. (1920–2009), U.S. –
Taser A taser is an electroshock weapon used to incapacitate people, allowing them to be approached and handled in an unresisting and thus safe manner. It is sold by Axon, formerly TASER International. It fires two small barbed darts intended to ...
*
William Crookes Sir William Crookes (; 17 June 1832 – 4 April 1919) was a British chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, now part of Imperial College London, and worked on spectroscopy. He was a pioneer of vacuum tubes, inventin ...
(1832–1919), UK –
Crookes radiometer The Crookes radiometer (also known as a light mill) consists of an airtight glass bulb containing a partial vacuum, with a set of vanes which are mounted on a spindle inside. The vanes rotate when exposed to light, with faster rotation for more i ...
,
Crookes tube A Crookes tube (also Crookes–Hittorf tube) is an early experimental electrical discharge tube, with partial vacuum, invented by English physicist William Crookes and others around 1869-1875, in which cathode rays, streams of electrons, were di ...
*
Bartolomeo Cristofori Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco (; May 4, 1655 – January 27, 1731) was an Italian maker of musical instruments famous for inventing the piano. Life The available source materials on Cristofori's life include his birth and death recor ...
(1655–1731), Italy – piano *
Caresse Crosby Caresse Crosby (born Mary Phelps Jacob; April 20, 1892 – January 24, 1970) was the first recipient of a patent for the modern brassiere, bra, an American patron of the arts, publisher, and the "literary godmother to the Lost Generation of expa ...
(1891–1970), U.S. - Modern
bra A bra, short for brassiere or brassière (, or ; ), is a form-fitting undergarment that is primarily used to support and cover breasts. It can serve a range of other practical and aesthetic purposes, including enhancing or reducing the appea ...
* S. Scott Crump (inv. c. 1989), U.S. –
fused deposition modeling Fused filament fabrication (FFF), also known as fused deposition modeling (with the trademarked acronym FDM), or called ''filament freeform fabrication'', is a 3D printing process that uses a continuous filament of a thermoplastic material. Fila ...
*
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (26 February 1725 – 2 October 1804) was a French inventor who built the world's first full-size and working self-propelled mechanical land-vehicle, the "Fardier à vapeur" – effectively the world's first automobile. B ...
(1725–1804), France – first steam-powered road vehicle *
William Cullen William Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG (; 15 April 17105 February 1790) was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. Cullen was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment: He was D ...
(1710–1790), UK – first artificial
refrigerator A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so t ...
* Jan Czochralski (1885–1953), Poland / Germany – Czochralski process (crystal growth)


D

* Nils Gustaf Dalén (1869–1937), Sweden –
AGA cooker The AGA cooker oven is a Swedish oven and cooker. Invented and initially produced in Sweden, since 1957 all production has been located in the UK. History Originally developed to burn coal or anthracite, the Aga cooker was invented in 1922 by ...
,
Dalén light A Dalén light is a light produced from burning of carbide gas (acetylene), combined with a solar sensor which automatically operates the light only during darkness. Overview The technology was the predominant form of light source in lighthouse ...
, Agamassan,
Sun valve A sun valve (''Swedish: solventil'', "solar valve") is a flow control valve that automatically shuts off gas flow during daylight. It earned its inventor Gustaf Dalén the 1912 Nobel Prize in Physics. Subsequently other variants of sun valve were ...
for lighthouses and buoys * John Frederic Daniell (1790–1845), UK –
Daniell cell The Daniell cell is a type of electrochemical cell invented in 1836 by John Frederic Daniell, a British chemist and meteorologist, and consists of a copper pot filled with a copper (II) sulfate solution, in which is immersed an unglazed earthe ...
* Corradino D'Ascanio (1891–1981), Italy –
Vespa Vespa () is an Italian luxury brand of scooters and mopeds manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian. The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A. of Pontedera, Italy t ...
scooter *
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...
(1452–1519), Italy –
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and t ...
, tanks, and
parachutes A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...
for safety * Robert Davidson (1804-1894), Scotland - electric locomotive * Jacob Davis (1868–1908), U.S. – Riveted jeans *
Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for t ...
(1778–1829), UK – Davy miners lamp * Joseph Day (1855–1946), UK – the crankcase-compression
two-stroke engine A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of ...
*
Lee de Forest Lee de Forest (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor and a fundamentally important early pioneer in electronics. He invented the first electronic device for controlling current flow; the three-element "Audion" triode ...
(1873–1961), U.S. –
Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. Introduction In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film proces ...
,
triode A triode is an electronic amplifying vacuum tube (or ''valve'' in British English) consisting of three electrodes inside an evacuated glass envelope: a heated filament or cathode, a grid, and a plate (anode). Developed from Lee De Forest' ...
*
Fe del Mundo Fe Villanueva del Mundo, , (born Fé Primitiva del Mundo y Villanueva; 27 November 1911 – 6 August 2011) was a Filipina pediatrician. She founded the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines and is known for shaping the modern child health ...
(1911–2011), Philippines – non-electric incubator * Yuri Nikolaevich Denisyuk (1927–2006), Russia – 3D
holography Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other applications. In principle, ...
*
Robert H. Dennard Robert Heath Dennard (born September 5, 1932) is an American electrical engineer and inventor. Biography Dennard was born in Terrell, Texas, U.S. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University ...
(born 1932), U.S. –
Dynamic random-access memory Dynamic random-access memory (dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell, usually consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxide ...
(DRAM) *
Miksa Déri Miksa Déri (27 October 1854 November, Bács, Kingdom of Hungary, (now: Bač, Serbia) – 3 March 1938) was a Hungarian electrical engineer, inventor, power plant builder. He contributed with his partners Károly Zipernowsky and Ottó Bláthy ...
(1854–1938), Hungary – co-inventor of an improved closed-core
transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's ...
* Robert DeStefano (born 1962), U.S. - exercise equipment *
James Dewar Sir James Dewar (20 September 1842 – 27 March 1923) was a British chemist and physicist. He is best known for his invention of the vacuum flask, which he used in conjunction with research into the liquefaction of gases. He also studied ato ...
(1842–1923), UK – Thermos flask *
Aleksandr Dianin Aleksandr Pavlovich Dianin (russian: Александр Павлович Дианин; 20 April 1851 – 6 December 1918) was a Russian chemist from Saint Petersburg. He carried out studies on phenols and discovered a phenol derivative now known ...
(1851–1918), Russia –
Bisphenol A Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical compound primarily used in the manufacturing of various plastics. It is a colourless solid which is soluble in most common organic solvents, but has very poor solubility in water. BPA is produced on an industrial s ...
,
Dianin's compound Dianin's compound (4-''p''-hydroxyphenyl-2,2,4-trimethylchroman) was first prepared by Aleksandr Dianin in 1914. This compound is a condensation isomer of bisphenol A and acetone and of special importance in host–guest chemistry because it can f ...
*
William Kennedy Laurie Dickson William Kennedy Laurie Dickson (3 August 1860 – 28 September 1935) was a British inventor who devised an early motion picture camera under the employment of Thomas Edison. Early life William Kennedy Dickson was born on 3 August 1860 in ...
(1860–1935), UK –
motion picture camera A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either on an image sensor or onto film stock, in order to produce a moving image to project onto a movie sc ...
* Philip Diehl (1847–1913), U.S. –
Ceiling fan A ceiling fan is a fan mounted on the ceiling of a room or space, usually electrically powered, that uses hub-mounted rotating blades to circulate air. They cool people effectively by increasing air speed. Fans do not reduce air temperatur ...
*
Rudolf Diesel Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel (, ; 18 March 1858 – 29 September 1913) was a German inventor and mechanical engineer who is famous for having invented the diesel engine, which burns diesel fuel; both are named after him. Early life and educatio ...
(1858–1913), Germany –
Diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-cal ...
* William H. Dobelle (1943–2004), U.S. – Dobelle Eye *
Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner (13 December 1780 – 24 March 1849) was a German chemist who is best known for work that foreshadowed the periodic law for the chemical elements, and for inventing the first lighter, which was known as the Döberei ...
(1780–1849), Germany –
Döbereiner's lamp Döbereiner's lamp, also called a "tinderbox" ("Feuerzeug"), is a lighter invented in 1823 by the German chemist Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner. The lighter is based on the Fürstenberger lighter (invented in Basel in 1780; in which hydrogen gas i ...
(chemistry) *
Toshitada Doi is a Japanese electrical engineer, who played a significant role in the digital audio revolution. He received a degree in electrical engineering from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1964, and a PhD from Tohoku University in 1972. He joined ...
(born 1943), Japan, together with Joop Sinjou, Netherlands – Compact disc *
Ray Dolby Ray Milton Dolby (; January 18, 1933 – September 12, 2013) was an American engineer and inventor of the noise reduction system known as Dolby NR. He helped develop the video tape recorder while at Ampex and was the founder of Dolby Labo ...
(1933–2013), U.S. –
Dolby noise-reduction system A Dolby noise-reduction system, or Dolby NR, is one of a series of noise reduction systems developed by Dolby Laboratories for use in analog audio tape recording. The first was '' Dolby A'', a professional broadband noise reduction sy ...
*
Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky Mikhail Osipovich Dolivo-Dobrovolsky (russian: Михаи́л О́сипович Доли́во-Доброво́льский; german: Michail von Dolivo-Dobrowolsky or ''Michail Ossipowitsch Doliwo-Dobrowolski''; – ) was a Russian Empire ...
(1862–1919), Poland/Russia –
three-phase electric power Three-phase electric power (abbreviated 3φ) is a common type of alternating current used in electricity generation, transmission, and distribution. It is a type of polyphase system employing three wires (or four including an optional neutral ...
* Marion O'Brien Donovan (1917–1998), U.S. – Waterproof diaper *
Hub van Doorne Hubert Jozef ("Hub") van Doorne (1 January 1900 – 23 May 1979) was the founder of Van Doorne's Aanhangwagenfabriek (Trailer factory) and of Van Doorne's Automobielfabriek (vehicle factory) known as DAF, together with his brother Willem (Wim) van ...
(1900–1979), Netherlands,
Variomatic Variomatic is the continuously variable transmission (CVT) of the Dutch car manufacturer DAF, originally developed by Hub van Doorne. It is a stepless, fully-automatic transmission, consisting of a V-shaped drive-belt, and two pulleys, each o ...
continuously variable transmission *
John Thompson Dorrance John Thompson Dorrance (November 11, 1873 – September 21, 1930) was an American chemist who discovered a method to create condensed soup, and served as president of the Campbell Soup Company from 1914 to 1930. Early life Born in Bristol, Pe ...
(1873–1930), U.S. –
Condensed soup Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot (but may be cool or cold), that is made by combining ingredients of meat or vegetables with stock, milk, or water. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingre ...
* Amanda Minnie Douglas (1831–1916), writer and inventor (portable folding mosquito net frame) *
Charles Dow Charles Henry Dow (; November 6, 1851 – December 4, 1902) was an American journalist who co-founded Dow Jones & Company with Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser. Dow also co-founded ''The Wall Street Journal'', which has become one of the ...
(1851–1902), U.S. –
Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity indexe ...
* Mulalo Doyoyo (born 1970), South Africa/U.S. – Cenocell – cementless concrete *
Anastase Dragomir Anastase Dragomir (1896–1966) was a distinguished Romanian inventor, most famous for his "catapultable cockpit" patent (with Tănase Dobrescu) as an early form of ejection seat, although preceded by Everard Calthrop's 1916 compressed air ejectio ...
(1896–1966), Romania
Ejection seat In aircraft, an ejection seat or ejector seat is a system designed to rescue the pilot or other crew of an aircraft (usually military) in an emergency. In most designs, the seat is propelled out of the aircraft by an explosive charge or rocket ...
*
Karl Drais Karl Freiherr von Drais (full name: Karl Friedrich Christian Ludwig Freiherr Drais von Sauerbronn) (29 April 1785 – 10 December 1851) was a noble German forest official and significant inventor in the Biedermeier period. He was born and die ...
(1785–1851), Germany –
dandy horse The dandy horse, a derogatory term for what was first called a Laufmaschine (in German), then a vélocipède or draisienne (in French and then English), and then a pedestrian curricle or hobby-horse, or swiftwalker, is a human-powered vehicle th ...
,
Draisine A draisine () is a light auxiliary rail vehicle, driven by service personnel, equipped to transport crew and material necessary for the maintenance of railway infrastructure. The eponymous term is derived from the German inventor Baron Karl D ...
* Richard Drew (1899–1980), U.S. –
Masking tape Masking tape, also known as painter's tape, is a type of pressure-sensitive tape made of a thin and easy-to-tear paper, and an easily released pressure-sensitive adhesive. It is available in a variety of widths. It is used mainly in painting, to ...
*
John Boyd Dunlop John Boyd Dunlop (5 February 1840 – 23 October 1921) was a Scottish-born inventor and veterinary surgeon who spent most of his career in Ireland. Familiar with making rubber devices, he invented the first practical pneumatic tyres for his c ...
(1840–1921), UK – first practical
pneumatic tyre Pneumatics (from Greek ‘wind, breath’) is a branch of engineering that makes use of gas or pressurized air. Pneumatic systems used in industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A centrally located and e ...
* Cyril Duquet (1841–1922), Canada – Telephone handset *
Alexey Dushkin Alexey Nikolayevich Dushkin (24 December 1904 – 8 October 1977) was a Soviet architect, best known for his 1930s designs of the Kropotkinskaya and Mayakovskaya stations of the Moscow Metro. He worked primarily for subway and railroads and ...
(1904–1977), Russia –
deep column station Deep or The Deep may refer to: Places United States * Deep Creek (Appomattox River tributary), Virginia * Deep Creek (Great Salt Lake), Idaho and Utah * Deep Creek (Mahantango Creek tributary), Pennsylvania * Deep Creek (Mojave River tributary), ...
*
James Dyson Sir James Dyson (born 2 May 1947) is a British inventor, industrial designer, farmer, and billionaire entrepreneur who founded Dyson Ltd. He is best known as the inventor of the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the princip ...
(born 1947), UK – Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, incorporating the principles of
cyclonic separation Cyclonic separation is a method of removing particulates from an air, gas or liquid stream, without the use of filters, through vortex separation. When removing particulate matter from liquid, a hydrocyclone is used; while from gas, a gas cyclo ...
.


E

*
George Eastman George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. He was a major philanthropist, establishing the Eastma ...
(1854–1932), U.S. –
roll film Roll film or rollfilm is any type of spool-wound photographic film protected from white light exposure by a paper backing. The term originated in contrast to sheet film. Confusingly, roll film was originally often referred to as "cartridge" film b ...
*
J. Presper Eckert John Adam Presper Eckert Jr. (April 9, 1919 – June 3, 1995) was an American electrical engineer and computer pioneer. With John Mauchly, he designed the first general-purpose electronic digital computer (ENIAC), presented the first course in c ...
(1919–1995), U.S. – ENIAC – the first general purpose programmable digital computer *
Thomas Alva Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...
(1847–1931), U.S. –
phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
, commercially practical
incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxida ...
, etc. * Pehr Victor Edman (1916–1977), Sweden –
Edman degradation Edman degradation, developed by Pehr Edman, is a method of sequencing amino acids in a peptide. In this method, the amino-terminal residue is labeled and cleaved from the peptide without disrupting the peptide bonds between other amino acid resid ...
for
Protein sequencing Protein sequencing is the practical process of determining the amino acid sequence of all or part of a protein or peptide. This may serve to identify the protein or characterize its post-translational modifications. Typically, partial sequencing ...
* Sir Robert Geoffrey Edwards (1925–2013), UK –
In vitro fertilisation In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) fr ...
* Ellen Eglin (1849–c. 1890), U.S. – Clothes wringer *
Brendan Eich Brendan Eich (; born July 4, 1961) is an American computer programmer and technology executive. He created the JavaScript programming language and co-founded the Mozilla project, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Mozilla Corporation. He served as ...
(born 1961), U.S. –
JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, often ...
(programming language) *
Willem Einthoven Willem Einthoven (21 May 1860 – 29 September 1927) was a Dutch doctor and physiologist. He invented the first practical electrocardiograph (ECG or EKG) in 1895 and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1924 for it ("for the dis ...
(1860–1927), The Netherlands – the electrocardiogram * Benjamin Eisenstadt (1906–1996), U.S. –
Sugar packet A sugar packet is a delivery method for one serving of sugar or other sweetener. Sugar packets are commonly supplied in restaurants, coffeehouses, and tea houses, where they are preferred to sugar bowls or sugar dispensers for reasons of neatness, ...
*
Paul Eisler Paul Eisler (1907 – 26 October 1992, London) was an Austrian inventor born in Vienna. Among his innovations were the printed circuit board. In 2012, ''Printed Circuit Design & Fab'' magazine named its Hall of Fame after Eisler. Early life and e ...
(1907–1992), Austria/U.S. –
Printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a laminated sandwich struct ...
(electronics) * Giorgi Eliava (1892–1937), together with
Félix d'Herelle Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...
(1873–1949), France / Georgia –
Phage therapy Phage therapy, viral phage therapy, or phagotherapy is the therapeutic use of bacteriophages for the treatment of pathogenic bacterial infections. This therapeutic approach emerged at the beginning of the 20th century but was progressively rep ...
*
Ivan Elmanov Ivan Kirillovich Elmanov (russian: Иван Кириллович Эльманов) was a Russian inventor. During 1820 in Myachkovo, near Moscow, he built a type of monorail described as a road on pillars. The single rail was made of timber balks ...
, Russia – first
monorail A monorail (from " mono", meaning "one", and "rail") is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurately ...
(horse-drawn) * Rune Elmqvist (1906–1996), Sweden – implantable pacemaker * John Haven Emerson (1906–1997), U.S. –
iron lung An iron lung is a type of negative pressure ventilator (NPV), a mechanical respirator which encloses most of a person's body, and varies the air pressure in the enclosed space, to stimulate breathing.Shneerson, Dr. John M., Newmarket General ...
*
Douglas Engelbart Douglas Carl Engelbart (January 30, 1925 – July 2, 2013) was an American engineer and inventor, and an early computer and Internet pioneer. He is best known for his work on founding the field of human–computer interaction, particularly ...
(1925–2013), U.S. – the
computer mouse A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows a smooth ...
*
John Ericsson John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States. Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive ''Novelty'', which com ...
(1803–1889), Sweden – the two screw-propeller *
Emil Erlenmeyer Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (28 June 182522 January 1909), known simply as Emil Erlenmeyer, was a German chemist known for contributing to the early development of the theory of structure, formulating the Erlenmeyer rule, and designing ...
(1825–1909), Germany –
Erlenmeyer flask An Erlenmeyer flask, also known as a conical flask (British English) or a titration flask, is a type of laboratory flask which features a flat bottom, a conical body, and a cylindrical neck. It is named after the German chemist Emil Erlenmeyer ...
* Sir Martin John Evans (born 1941), together with Mario Ramberg Capecchi (born 1937), and
Oliver Smithies Oliver Smithies (23 June 1925 – 10 January 2017) was a British-American geneticist and physical biochemist. He is known for introducing starch as a medium for gel electrophoresis in 1955, and for the discovery, simultaneously with Mario Capecc ...
(1925–2017), U.S. –
Knockout mouse A knockout mouse, or knock-out mouse, is a genetically modified mouse (''Mus musculus'') in which researchers have inactivated, or "knocked out", an existing gene by replacing it or disrupting it with an artificial piece of DNA. They are important ...
,
Gene targeting Gene targeting (also, replacement strategy based on homologous recombination) is a genetic technique that uses homologous recombination to modify an endogenous gene. The method can be used to delete a gene, remove exons, add a gene and modify ...
*
Ole Evinrude Ole Evinrude, born Ole Andreassen Aaslundeie (April 19, 1877 – July 12, 1934) was an American entrepreneur, known for the invention of the first outboard motor with practical commercial application. Biography Ole Evinrude was born in Hunn ...
(1877–1934), Norway –
outboard motor An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method ...


F

*
Charles Fabry Maurice Paul Auguste Charles Fabry (; 11 June 1867 – 11 December 1945) was a French physicist. Life Fabry graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris and received his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1892, for his work on i ...
(1867–1945), together with
Alfred Perot Jean-Baptiste Alfred Perot (; 3 November 1863 – 28 November 1925) was a French physicist. Together with his colleague Charles Fabry he developed the Fabry–Pérot interferometer in 1899. The French Academy of Sciences awarded him the Ja ...
(1863–1925), France –
Fabry–Pérot interferometer In optics, a Fabry–Pérot interferometer (FPI) or etalon is an optical cavity made from two parallel reflecting surfaces (i.e.: thin mirrors). Optical waves can pass through the optical cavity only when they are in resonance with it. It is n ...
(physics) * Samuel Face (1923–2001), U.S. – concrete flatness/levelness technology; Lightning Switch *
Federico Faggin Federico Faggin (, ; born 1 December 1941) is an Italian physicist, engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He is best known for designing the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004. He led the 4004 (MCS-4) project and the design group du ...
(born 1941), Italy –
microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...
*
Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit FRS (; ; 24 May 1686 – 16 September 1736) was a physicist, inventor, and scientific instrument maker. Born in Poland to a family of German extraction, he later moved to the Dutch Republic at age 15, where he spent ...
(1686–1736), The Netherlands –
Fahrenheit The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined his ...
temperature scale,
Mercury-in-glass thermometer The mercury-in-glass or mercury thermometer was invented by physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit in Amsterdam (1714). It consists of a bulb containing mercury attached to a glass tube of narrow diameter; the volume of mercury in the tube is much l ...
*
Michael Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, ...
(1791–1867), UK – electric
transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's ...
,
electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate force ...
*
Johann Maria Farina Johann Maria Farina 1685–1766 Giovanni Maria Farina (born 8 December 1685, Santa Maria Maggiore; Germanized name: Johann Maria Farina, Francized: Jean Marie Farina – 25 November 1766, Cologne) was an Italian-born perfumier in German ...
(1685–1766), Germany;
Eau de Cologne Eau de Cologne (; German: ''Kölnisch Wasser'' ; meaning "Water from Cologne"), or simply cologne, is a perfume originating from Cologne, Germany. Originally mixed by Johann Maria Farina (Giovanni Maria Farina) in 1709, it has since come to be a g ...
*
Myra Juliet Farrell Myra Juliet Farrell (also Myra Juliet Welsh and Myra Juliet Taylor; 25 February 1878 – 8 March 1957) was an Australian visionary, inventor and artist. Born in County Clare, Ireland, she migrated to Australia as a child, growing up in Broken Hi ...
(1878–1957), Australia – stitchless button, Press stud *
Philo Farnsworth Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971) was an American inventor and television pioneer. He made many crucial contributions to the early development of all-electronic television. He is best known for his 1927 invention of t ...
(1906–1971), U.S. –
electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...
television *
Muhammad al-Fazari Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...
(died 796/806), Persia
astrolabe An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستاره‌یاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...
*
John Bennett Fenn John Bennett Fenn (June 15, 1917December 10, 2010) was an American professor of analytical chemistry who was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002. Fenn shared half of the award with Koichi Tanaka for their work in mass spectrom ...
(1917–2010), U.S. –
Electrospray ionization Electrospray ionization (ESI) is a technique used in mass spectrometry to produce ions using an electrospray in which a high voltage is applied to a liquid to create an aerosol. It is especially useful in producing ions from macromolecules becaus ...
* Henry John Horstman Fenton (1854–1929), UK –
Fenton's reagent Fenton's reagent is a solution of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with ferrous iron (typically iron(II) sulfate, FeSO4) as a catalyst that is used to oxidize contaminants or waste waters as part of an advanced oxidation process. Fenton's reagent can be ...
(chemistry) *
James Fergason James Lee Fergason (January 12, 1934 – December 9, 2008) was an American inventor and business entrepreneur. A member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Fergason is best known for his work on an improved Liquid Crystal Display, or LCD. He ...
(1934–2008), U.S. – improved
liquid crystal display A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...
*
Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and t ...
(1901–1954), Italy –
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from n ...
*
Humberto Fernández-Morán Humberto Fernández-Morán Villalobos (February 18, 1924 March 17, 1999) was a Venezuelan research scientist born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, known for inventing the diamond knife or scalpel, significantly advancing the development of electromagnet ...
(1924–1999), Venezuela – Diamond scalpel, Ultra microtome *
Michele Ferrero Michele Ferrero (; 26 April 1925 – 14 February 2015) was an Italian billionaire businessman. He owned the chocolate manufacturer Ferrero SpA, Europe's second largest confectionery company (at the time of his death), which he developed from t ...
(1925–2015), Italy –
Kinder Surprise Kinder Surprise ( Italian: ''Kinder Sorpresa'' or ''Ovetto Kinder''), also known as Kinder Egg or Kinder Surprise Egg, is a milk chocolate consisting of a chocolate egg surrounding a yellow plastic capsule with a small toy inside. Manufactured by ...
= Kinder Eggs,
Nutella Nutella (; ; ) is a brand of sweetened hazelnut cocoa spread. Nutella is manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero and was first introduced in 1964, although its first iteration dates to 1963. History Pietro Ferrero owned a bakery in Alba ...
*
Bran Ferren Bran Ferren (born January 16, 1953), is an American technologist, artist, architectural designer, vehicle designer, engineer, lighting and sound designer, visual effects artist, scientist, lecturer, photographer, entrepreneur, and inventor. Ferr ...
(born 1953), U.S. –
Pinch-to-zoom In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface (a touchpad or touchscreen) to recognize the presence of more than one point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CERN, MIT, University of ...
(multi-touch), together with
Daniel Hillis William Daniel "Danny" Hillis (born September 25, 1956) is an American inventor, entrepreneur, and computer scientist, who pioneered parallel computers and their use in artificial intelligence. He founded Thinking Machines Corporation, a parall ...
*
Reginald Fessenden Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (October 6, 1866 – July 22, 1932) was a Canadian-born inventor, who did a majority of his work in the United States and also claimed U.S. citizenship through his American-born father. During his life he received hundre ...
(1866–1932), Canada – two-way radio * Robert Feulgen (1884–1955), Germany –
Feulgen stain Feulgen stain is a staining technique discovered by Robert Feulgen and used in histology to identify chromosomal material or DNA in cell specimens. It is darkly stained. It depends on acid hydrolysis of DNA, therefore fixating agents using stron ...
(histology) *
Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick (22 February 1852 – 11 February 1937) was a German ophthalmologist who invented the contact lens. He was the nephew of the German physiologist Adolf Eugen Fick, and the son of the German anatomy professor Franz Ludwig ...
(1829–1901), Germany –
contact lens Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmetic ...
*
Abbas Ibn Firnas Abu al-Qasim Abbas ibn Firnas ibn Wirdas al-Takurini ( ar, أبو القاسم عباس بن فرناس بن ورداس التاكرني; c. 809/810 – 887 A.D.), also known as Abbas ibn Firnas ( ar, عباس ابن فرناس), Latinized Arme ...
(810–887),
Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the Mu ...
fused quartz Fused quartz, fused silica or quartz glass is a glass consisting of almost pure silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) in amorphous (non-crystalline) form. This differs from all other commercial glasses in which other ingredients are added which chang ...
and
silica glass Fused quartz, fused silica or quartz glass is a glass consisting of almost pure silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) in amorphous (non-crystalline) form. This differs from all other commercial glasses in which other ingredients are added which change ...
,
metronome A metronome, from ancient Greek μέτρον (''métron'', "measure") and νομός (nomós, "custom", "melody") is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a regular interval that can be set by the user, typically in beats p ...
*
Artur Fischer Artur Fischer (31 December 1919 – 27 January 2016) was a German inventor. He is best known for inventing the plastic expanding wall plug. Born in Tumlingen, Artur Fischer was the son of the village tailor Georg Fischer. His mother Pauline ...
(1919–2016) Germany – fasteners including
fischertechnik Fischertechnik is a brand of construction toy. It was invented by Artur Fischer and is produced by fischertechnik GmbH in Waldachtal, Germany. Fans often refer to Fischertechnik as "FT" or "ft". It is used in education for teaching about simp ...
. *
Franz Joseph Emil Fischer Franz Joseph Emil Fischer (19 March 1877 in Freiburg im Breisgau – 1 December 1947 in Munich) was a German chemist. He was the founder and first director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research. He is known for the discovery of ...
(1877–1947), together with
Hans Schrader Johann (Hans) Hermann Schrader (15 February 1869, Stolp – 5 November 1948, Berlin) was a German classical archaeologist and art historian. He was a student at the Universities of Marburg and Berlin, where he was a pupil of Reinhard Kekulé von ...
(1921–2012), Germany – Fischer assay (oil yield test) *
Franz Joseph Emil Fischer Franz Joseph Emil Fischer (19 March 1877 in Freiburg im Breisgau – 1 December 1947 in Munich) was a German chemist. He was the founder and first director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research. He is known for the discovery of ...
(1877–1947), together with Hans Tropsch (1889–1935), Germany –
Fischer–Tropsch process The Fischer–Tropsch process is a collection of chemical reactions that converts a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, known as syngas, into liquid hydrocarbons. These reactions occur in the presence of metal catalysts, typically at temperat ...
(refinery process) * Gerhard Fischer (1899–1988), Germany/U.S. – hand-held metal detector * Paul C. Fisher (1913–2006), U.S. –
Space Pen The Space Pen (also known as the Zero Gravity Pen), marketed by Fisher Space Pen Company, is a pen that uses pressurized ink cartridges and is able to write in zero gravity, underwater, over wet and greasy paper, at any angle, and in a very wide r ...
*
Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of what ...
(1881–1955), Scotland –
Penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum usin ...
*
John Ambrose Fleming Sir John Ambrose Fleming FRS (29 November 1849 – 18 April 1945) was an English electrical engineer and physicist who invented the first thermionic valve or vacuum tube, designed the radio transmitter with which the first transatlantic radi ...
(1848–1945), UK –
Vacuum diode A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The type known as a ...
*
Sandford Fleming Sir Sandford Fleming (January 7, 1827 – July 22, 1915) was a Scottish Canadian engineer and inventor. Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to colonial Canada at the age of 18. He promoted worldwide standard time zones, a prime meridi ...
(1827–1915), Canada – Universal Standard Time * Nicolas Florine (1891–1972),
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
/Russia/Belgium – first
tandem rotor Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and t ...
to fly freely *
Tommy Flowers Thomas Harold Flowers MBE (22 December 1905 – 28 October 1998) was an English engineer with the British General Post Office. During World War II, Flowers designed and built Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic computer, to help ...
(1905–1998), UK –
Colossus Colossus, Colossos, or the plural Colossi or Colossuses, may refer to: Statues * Any exceptionally large statue ** List of tallest statues ** :Colossal statues * ''Colossus of Barletta'', a bronze statue of an unidentified Roman emperor * ''Col ...
an early electronic computer. * Thomas J. Fogarty (born 1934), U.S. – Embolectomy catheter (medicine) *
Enrico Forlanini Enrico Forlanini (13 December 1848 – 9 October 1930) was an Italian engineer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer, known for his works on helicopters, aeroplanes, hydrofoils and dirigibles. He was born in Milan. His older brother Carlo Forla ...
(1848–1930), Italy – Steam helicopter,
hydrofoil A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains sp ...
, Forlanini airships *
Eric Fossum Eric R. Fossum (born October 17, 1957) is an American physicist and engineer, which with the help of other JPL scientists, co-developed some features of the CMOS image sensor. He is currently a professor at Thayer School of Engineering in Dartmout ...
(born 1957), U.S. – intra-pixel charge transfer in
CMOS image sensor An active-pixel sensor (APS) is an image sensor where each pixel sensor unit cell has a photodetector (typically a pinned photodiode) and one or more active transistors. In a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) active-pixel sensor, MOS field-effec ...
s * Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (1819–1868), France –
Foucault pendulum The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault, conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. A long and heavy pendulum suspended from the high roof above a circular a ...
,
gyroscope A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rot ...
,
eddy current Eddy currents (also called Foucault's currents) are loops of electrical current induced within conductors by a changing magnetic field in the conductor according to Faraday's law of induction or by the relative motion of a conductor in a magne ...
*
Benoît Fourneyron Benoît Fourneyron (31 October 1802 – 31 July 1867) was a French engineer, born in Saint-Étienne, Loire. Fourneyron made significant contributions to the development of water turbines. Benoît Fourneyron was educated at the École Nation ...
(1802–1867), France –
water turbine A water turbine is a rotary machine that converts kinetic energy and potential energy of water into mechanical work. Water turbines were developed in the 19th century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now, th ...
* John Fowler (1826–1864), UK – steam-driven ploughing engine *
Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading intel ...
(1706–1790), U.S. – the pointed lightning rod conductor, bifocal glasses, the Franklin stove, the
glass harmonica The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, glass harmonium, bowl organ, hydrocrystalophone, or simply the armonica or harmonica (derived from , ''harmonia'', the Greek word for harmony), is a type of musical instrument that uses a ...
*
Herman Frasch Herman Frasch r Hermann Frasch(December 25, 1851 in Oberrot bei Gaildorf, Württemberg – May 1, 1914 in Paris) was a chemist, mining engineer and inventor known for his work with petroleum and sulfur. Biography Early life He was the son of Joha ...
(1851–1914), Germany / U.S. – Frasch process (petrochemistry), Paraffin wax purification * Ian Hector Frazer (born 1953), together with
Jian Zhou Jian Zhou (; 1957 – March 1999) was a Chinese virologist and cancer researcher, who with fellow researcher Ian Frazer, invented Gardasil and Cervarix, the vaccines for stimulating human immunological resistance to the cervical cancer-inducin ...
(1957–1999), U.S./China –
HPV vaccine Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines are vaccines that prevent infection by certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV). Available HPV vaccines protect against either two, four, or nine types of HPV. All HPV vaccines protect against at least HP ...
against
cervical cancer Cervical cancer is a cancer arising from the cervix. It is due to the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Early on, typically no symptoms are seen. Later symptoms may include abnormal va ...
*
Augustin-Jean Fresnel Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Newton's corpuscular t ...
(1788–1827), France –
Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the c ...
*
William Friese-Greene William Friese-Greene (born William Edward Green, 7 September 1855 – 5 May 1921) was a prolific English inventor and professional photographer. He was known as a pioneer in the field of motion pictures, having devised a series of cameras in 1 ...
(1855–1921), UK –
cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to fo ...
*
Julius Fromm Julius Fromm (4 March 1883 – 12 May 1945) was a Polish- German entrepreneur, chemist, and one of the inventors of the rubber condom and who also made several other elastomeric products such as rubber gloves and hot water bottles. Owing to his Je ...
(1883–1945), Germany – first seamless Condom *
Arthur Fry Arthur Fry (born 19 August 1932) is an American inventor and scientist. He is credited as the co-creator of the Post-it Note, an item of office stationery manufactured by 3M. As of 2006, Post-it products are sold in more than 100 countries. L ...
(born 1931), U.S. –
Post-it note A Post-it Note (or sticky note) is a small piece of paper with a re-adherable strip of glue on its back, made for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. A low- tack pressure-sensitive adhesive allows the notes to be easil ...
*
Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more ...
(1895–1983), U.S. –
geodesic dome A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The triangular elements of the dome are structurally rigid and distribute the structural stress throughout the structure, making geodesic d ...
* C. W. Fuller (inv. 1953), U.S. – Gilhoolie *
Robert Fulton Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 24, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the (also known as ''Clermont''). In 1807, that steamboat ...
(1765–1815), United States – first commercially successful
steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S (for 'Screw Steamer') or PS (for 'Paddle Steamer'); however, these ...
, first practical
submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
* Ivan Fyodorov (c. 1510–1583), Russia/ Poland–Lithuania – invented multibarreled mortar, introduced
printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The e ...
in Russia *
Svyatoslav Fyodorov Svyatoslav Nikolayevich Fyodorov (; August 8, 1927 – June 2, 2000) was a Russian ophthalmologist, politician, professor, full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. He is considered to be a pioneer of ...
(1927–2000), Russia – radial keratotomy * Vladimir Fyodorov (1874–1966), Russia –
Fedorov Avtomat The Fedorov Avtomat (also anglicized as Federov, ) or FA is a select-fire infantry rifle and also one of the world's first operational automatic rifles, designed by Vladimir Grigoryevich Fyodorov in 1915 and produced in the Russian Empire and lat ...
(first self-loading
battle rifle A battle rifle is a service rifle chambered to fire a fully powered cartridge. The term "battle rifle" is a retronym created largely out of a need to better differentiate the intermediate-powered assault rifles (e.g. the StG-44, AK-47, M16, ...
, arguably the first assault rifle)


G

*
Dennis Gabor Dennis Gabor ( ; hu, Gábor Dénes, ; 5 June 1900 – 9 February 1979) was a Hungarian-British electrical engineer and physicist, most notable for inventing holography, for which he later received the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics. He obtained ...
(1900–1979), Hungarian-British –
holography Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other applications. In principle, ...
*
Boris Borisovich Galitzine Prince Boris Borisovich Golitsyn ( – ) was a prominent Russian physicist who invented the first electromagnetic seismograph in 1906. He was one of the founders of modern Seismology. In 1911 he was chosen to be the president of the Internat ...
(1862–1916), Russia –
electromagnetic In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of a ...
seismograph A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground noises and shaking such as caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The output ...
*
Joseph G. Gall Joseph Grafton Gall (born April 14, 1928) is an American cell biologist who is noted for studies revealing the details of chromosome structure and function. Gall's studies were greatly facilitated by his knowledge of many different organisms bec ...
(born 1928), U.S. –
In situ hybridization ''In situ'' hybridization (ISH) is a type of hybridization that uses a labeled complementary DNA, RNA or modified nucleic acids strand (i.e., probe) to localize a specific DNA or RNA sequence in a portion or section of tissue (''in situ'') or ...
(cell biology) * Alfred William Gallagher (1911–1990), New Zealand –
Electric fence An electric fence is a barrier that uses electric shocks to deter people or animals from crossing a boundary. The voltage of the shock may have effects ranging from discomfort to death. Most electric fences are used for agricultural fencing a ...
for farmers * Dmitri Garbuzov (1940–2006), Russia/U.S. – continuous-wave-operating
diode lasers The laser diode chip removed and placed on the eye of a needle for scale A laser diode (LD, also injection laser diode or ILD, or diode laser) is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emitting diode in which a diode pumped directly with e ...
(together with
Zhores Alferov Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (russian: link=no, Жоре́с Ива́нович Алфёров, ; be, Жарэс Іва́навіч Алфёраў; 15 March 19301 March 2019) was a Soviet and Russian physicist and academic who contributed signific ...
), high-power diode lasers * Elmer R. Gates (1859–1923), U.S. – foam fire extinguisher, electric loom mechanisms, magnetic & diamagnetic separators, educational toy ("box & blocks")* * Richard J. Gatling (1818–1903), U.S. – wheat drill, first successful
machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles ...
* Georgy Gause (1910–1986), Russia –
gramicidin S Gramicidin S or Gramicidin Soviet is an antibiotic that is effective against some gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria as well as some fungi. It is a derivative of gramicidin, produced by the gram-positive bacterium '' Brevibacillus brevis' ...
,
neomycin Neomycin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic that displays bactericidal activity against gram-negative aerobic bacilli and some anaerobic bacilli where resistance has not yet arisen. It is generally not effective against gram-positive bacilli and an ...
,
lincomycin Lincomycin is a lincosamide antibiotic that comes from the actinomycete ''Streptomyces lincolnensis''. A related compound, clindamycin, is derived from lincomycin by using thionyl chloride to replace the 7-hydroxy group with a chlorine atom with ...
and other
antibiotics An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention ...
* E. K. Gauzen, Russia – three bolt equipment (early diving costume) *
Norman Gaylord Norman Grant Gaylord (born Norman Gershon Goldstein; February 16, 1923 – September 18, 2007) was an American industrial chemist and research scientist. He was credited with playing a key role in the development of the gas-permeable rigid contact l ...
(1923–2007), U.S. – rigid gas-permeable
contact lens Contact lenses, or simply contacts, are thin lenses placed directly on the surface of the eyes. Contact lenses are ocular prosthetic devices used by over 150 million people worldwide, and they can be worn to correct vision or for cosmetic ...
* Karl-Hermann Geib (1908–1949), Germany / USSR –
Girdler sulfide process The Girdler sulfide (GS) process, also known as the GeibSpevack (GS) process, is an industrial production method for filtering out of natural water the heavy water (deuterium oxide = D2O) which is used in particle research, in deuterium NMR s ...
* Hans Wilhelm Geiger (1882–1945), Germany – Geiger counter * Andre Geim, Andrey Geim (born 1958), Russia/United Kingdom – graphene * Nestor Genko (1839–1904), Russia – Genko's Forest Belt (the first large-scale windbreak system) * Christoph Gerber (1942–), with Calvin Quate (1923–2019), and with
Gerd Binnig Gerd Binnig (; born 20 July 1947) is a German physicist. He is most famous for having won the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Heinrich Rohrer in 1986 for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope. Early life and education Binnig w ...
(1947–), Germany/U.S./Switzerland – Atomic force microscope * Friedrich Clemens Gerke (1801–1888), Germany – current international Morse code#International Morse Code, Morse code * David Gestetner (1854–1939), Austria-Hungary / UK – Gestetner, Gestetner copier * Alberto Gianni (1891–1930), Italy – Torretta butoscopica * John Heysham Gibbon (1903–1973), U.S. – Heart-lung machine * Gustav Giemsa (1867–1948), Germany – Giemsa stain (histology) * Adolph Giesl-Gieslingen (1903–1992), Austria – Giesl ejector * Henri Giffard (1825–1882), France – powered airship, injector * David J. Gingery (1932–2004), USA * Donald A. Glaser (1926–2013), U.S. – Bubble chamber * Joseph Glass (inventor), Joseph Glass (1791–1867), England – chimney-sweeping apparatus * Valentyn Glushko (1908–1989), Russia – hypergolic propellant, Electrically powered spacecraft propulsion, electric propulsion, Soviet rocket engines (including world's most powerful liquid-fuel rocket, liquid-fuel rocket engine RD-170 (rocket engine), RD-170) * Heinrich Göbel (1818–1893), Germany – incandescent lamp * Leonid Gobyato (1875–1915), Russia – man-portable mortar * Robert Goddard (scientist), Robert Goddard (1882–1945), U.S. – liquid fuel rocket * Sam Golden (1915–1997), together with Leonard Bocour (1910–1993), U.S. – Acrylic paint * Peter Carl Goldmark (1906–1977), Hungary – vinyl record (LP), CBS
color television Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white ...
* Camillo Golgi (1843–1926), Italy – Golgi's method (histology) * György Gömöri (1904–1957), Hungary / U.S. – Gömöri trichrome stain, Gömöri methenamine silver stain (histology) * Lewis Gompertz (—1861), UK – expanding chuck, improved velocipede * Sarah E. Goode (1855–1905), US – cabinet bed. First African-American woman to receive a United States patent. * Charles Goodyear (1800–1860), U.S. – vulcanization, vulcanization of rubber * Praveen Kumar Gorakavi (born 1989), India – low-cost Braille Typewriter * Robert W. Gore (1937–2020), U.S. – Gore-Tex * Igor Gorynin (1926–2015), Russia – weldable titanium alloys, high strength aluminium alloys, Radiation hardening, radiation-hardened steels * James Gosling (born 1955), U.S. – Java (programming language) * Gordon Gould (1920–2005), U.S. – Laser, see also Theodore Maiman * Richard Hall Gower (1768–1833), UK – Transit (ship), ship's hull and rigging * Boris Grabovsky (1901–1966), Russia – cathode commutator, an early electronic TV pickup tube * Bette Nesmith Graham (1924–1980), U.S. – Correction fluid, Liquid Paper * Iréne Grahn (1945–2013), Sweden – finger joint support for patients with rheumatoid arthritis * Hans Christian Gram (1853–1938), Denmark / Germany – Gram staining (histology) * Zénobe Gramme (1826–1901), Belgium/France – Gramme dynamo * Temple Grandin (born 1947), Inventor of the squeeze machine and humane abattoirs. * Michael Grätzel (born 1944), Germany/Switzerland– Dye-sensitized solar cell * James Henry Greathead (1844–1896), South Africa – tunnel boring machine, tunnelling shield technique * Chester Greenwood (1858–1937), U.S. – Earmuffs, thermal earmuffs * Lori Greiner (born 1969), U.S. – Silver Safekeeper anti-tarnish lining (jewelry organizers) and multiple consumer products, 120 US and foreign patents * James Gregory (astronomer and mathematician), James Gregory (1638–1675), Scotland – Gregorian telescope * William Griggs (inventor), William Griggs (1832–1911), England – a process of photolithography * William Robert Grove (1811–1896), Wales – fuel cell * Gustav Guanella (1909–1982), Switzerland – DSSS, Guanella-Balun * Otto von Guericke (1602–1686), Germany – vacuum pump, manometer, dasymeter * Mikhail Gurevich (aircraft designer), Mikhail Gurevich (1893–1976), Russia – MiG-series fighter aircraft, including world's List of most produced aircraft, most produced jet aircraft Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, MiG-15 and most produced supersonic aircraft Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, MiG-21 (together with Artem Mikoyan) * Goldsworthy Gurney (1793–1875), England – Gurney Stove * Bartolomeu de Gusmão (1685–1724), Brazil – early air balloons * Johann Gutenberg (c. 1398–1468), Germany – movable type printing press * Samuel Guthrie (physician) (1782–1848), U.S. – discovered chloroform


H

* Fritz Haber (1868–1934), Germany – Haber process (ammonia synthesis) * John Hadley (1682–1744), UK – octant (instrument), Octant * Waldemar Haffkine (1860–1930), Russia/Switzerland – first anti-cholera and anti-bubonic plague, plague vaccines * Gunther von Hagens (born 1945), Germany – whole body Plastination * Charles Martin Hall, Charles Hall (1863–1914), U.S. – aluminum production * Robert N. Hall (1919–2016), U.S. – Laser diode, Semiconductor laser * Samuel Hall (inventor), Samuel Hall (1782–1863), UK – condenser (heat transfer), condenser to enable recycling of water in ship's steam engine * Tracy Hall (1919–2008), U.S. – synthetic diamond * Nicholas Halse (died 1636), England – malt kiln * Richard Hamming (1915–1998), U.S. – Hamming code * John Hays Hammond Jr. (1888–1965), U.S. – radio control * Ruth Handler (1916–2002), U.S. – Barbie doll * James Hargreaves (1720–1778), UK – spinning jenny * John Harington (writer), John Harington (1561–1612), UK – the flush toilet * William Snow Harris (1791–1867), UK – much improved naval Lightning rods * John Harrison (1693–1776), UK – marine chronometer * Ross Granville Harrison (1870–1959), U.S. – first successful animal Tissue culture, Cell culture * Kazuo Hashimoto (died 1995), Japan – Caller-ID, answering machine * Victor Hasselblad (1906–1978), Sweden – invented the 6 x 6 cm single-lens reflex camera * Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (965–1039), Iraq – camera obscura, pinhole camera, magnifying glass * George H. Heilmeier (1936–2014), U.S. –
liquid crystal display A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...
(LCD) * Henry Heimlich (1920–2016), U.S. – Heimlich maneuver#Abdominal thrusts, Heimlich maneuver * Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988), U.S. –
waterbed A waterbed, water mattress, or flotation mattress is a bed or mattress filled with water. Waterbeds intended for medical therapies appear in various reports through the 19th century. The modern version, invented in San Francisco and patented in ...
* Jozef Karol Hell (1713–1789), Slovakia – the water pillar * Rudolf Hell (1901–2002), Germany – the Hellschreiber * Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894), Germany – Helmholtz pitch notation, Helmholtz resonator, ophthalmoscope * Zhang Heng (78–139), China – Seismometer, first hydraulic-powered armillary sphere * Beulah Louise Henry (1887–1973), U.S. – bobbin-free sewing machine, vacuum ice cream freezer * Charles H. Henry (1937-2016), U.S. – Quantum well laser * Joseph Henry (1797–1878), Scotland/U.S. – electromagnetic relay *
Félix d'Herelle Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...
(1873–1949), together with Giorgi Eliava (1892–1937), France,Georgia –
Phage therapy Phage therapy, viral phage therapy, or phagotherapy is the therapeutic use of bacteriophages for the treatment of pathogenic bacterial infections. This therapeutic approach emerged at the beginning of the 20th century but was progressively rep ...
* Hero of Alexandria, Heron (c. 10–70), Ægyptus, Roman Egypt – usually credited with invention of the aeolipile, although it may have been described a century earlier * John Herschel (1792–1871), UK – photographic fixer (hypo), actinometer * Harry Houdini (1874–1926) U.S. – flight time illusion * Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894), Germany – radio telegraphy, electromagnetic radiation * Ephraim Hertzano (1912–1987), Roumania / Israel – Rummikub * Lasse Hessel (1940–2019), Denmark – Female condom * George de Hevesy (1885–1966), Hungary – radioactive tracer * Ron Hickman, Ronald Price Hickman (1932–2011), U.S. – designed the original Lotus Elan#1960s Elan, Lotus Elan, the Lotus Elan#1960s Elan, Lotus Elan +2 and the Lotus Europa, as well as the Black & Decker Workmate * Rowland Hill (postal reformer), Rowland Hill (1795–1879), UK – postage stamp * Maurice Hilleman (1919–2005) – vaccines against childhood diseases * Tanaka Hisashige (1799–1881), Japan – Myriad year clock * Marcian Hoff, Ted Hoff (born 1937), U.S. –
microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...
* Felix Hoffmann (Bayer) (1868–1949), Germany – Aspirin * Albert Hofmann (1906–2008), Switzerland – LSD * Kotaro Honda (1870–1954), Japan – KS steel * Huang Hongjia (1924–2021), China – Single-mode optical fiber. * Herman Hollerith (1860–1929), U.S. – recording data on a machine readable medium, tabulating machine, tabulator, punched cards * Nick Holonyak (born 1928), U.S. – LED (Light Emitting Diode) * Norman Holter (1914–1983), U.S. – Holter monitor * Robert Hooke (1635–1703), UK – balance wheel, iris diaphragm, Tin can telephone, acoustic telephone * Erna Schneider Hoover (born 1926), U.S. – computerized telephone switching system * Harold Hopkins (physicist), Harold Hopkins (1918–1994), UK – zoom lens, rod lens endoscope * Grace Hopper, Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992), U.S. – Compiler * Frank Hornby (1863–1936), UK – invented Meccano * Jimmy Hotz (born 1953), U.S. – Hotz MIDI Translator, Atari Hotz Box * Royal Earl House (1814–1895), U.S. – first Printing telegraph * Coenraad Johannes van Houten (1801–1887), Netherlands – cocoa powder, cacao butter, chocolate milk * Elias Howe (1819–1867), U.S. – sewing machine * David Edward Hughes (1831–1900), UK – printing telegraph * Chuck Hull (born 1939), U.S. – 3D printing, 3D printer * Troy Hurtubise (1963–2018), Canada – Trojan Ballistics Suit of Armor, Ursus suit, Firepaste, Angel Light * Miller Reese Hutchison (1876–1944), U.S. – Klaxon, electric hearing aid * Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695), Netherlands – pendulum clock * John Wesley Hyatt (1837–1920), U.S. – celluloid manufacturing


I

* Gavriil Abramovich Ilizarov, Gavriil Ilizarov (1921–1992), Russia – Ilizarov apparatus, external fixation, distraction osteogenesis * Mamoru Imura (born 1948), Japan – RFIQin (automatic cooking device) * Daisuke Inoue (born 1940), Japan – Karaoke machine * János Irinyi (1817–1895), Hungary – noiseless match * Ub Iwerks (1901–1971), U. S. – Multiplane camera for animation


J

* Moritz von Jacobi (1801–1874), Germany/Russia – electrotyping, electric boat * Rudolf Jaenisch (born 1942), Germany/U.S. – first Genetically modified mouse * Alcinous Burton Jamison (1851–1938), American physician, inventor of medical devices * Karl Guthe Jansky (1905–1950), U.S. – radio telescope * Karl Jatho (1873–1933), Germany – aeroplane * Ali Javan (1926–2016), together with William R. Bennett Jr. (1930–2008), Iran/U.S. – Gas laser (Helium-Neon) * Al-Jazari (1136–1206), Iraq – crank-driven and hydropowered saqiya chain pump, crank-driven screw and Archimedes' screw, screwpump, elephant clock, Maintaining power, weight-driven clock, weight-driven pump, Reciprocating engine, reciprocating piston suction pump, geared and hydropowered Water supply network, water supply system, Program (machine), programmable humanoid robots, robotics, hand washing Automaton, automata, Flush toilet, flush mechanism, Laminate, lamination, Mechanical equilibrium, static balancing, paper model, sand casting, molding sand, intermittency, Linkage (mechanical), linkage * Ibn Al-Jazzar (Algizar) (895–979), Tunisia – sexual dysfunction and erectile dysfunction treatment drugs * Ányos Jedlik (1800–1898), Hungary – Dynamo#Jedlik's dynamo, Jedlik dynamo * Alec Jeffreys, Alec John Jeffreys (born 1950), UK – DNA profiling (forensics) * Charles Francis Jenkins (1867–1934), U.S. – television and movie projector (Phantoscope) * Thomas L. Jennings (1791–1859), U.S. – novel method of dry cleaning * Steve Jobs (1955–2011), U.S. – Apple Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone, iPad and other devices, software operating systems and applications. * Amos E. Joel Jr., Amos Edward Joel Jr. (1918–2008) U.S. – electrical engineer, known for several contributions and over seventy patents related to telecommunications switching systems * Carl Edvard Johansson (1864–1943), Sweden – Gauge blocks * Johan Petter Johansson (1853–1943), Sweden – Pipe wrench and adjustable spanner * Reynold B. Johnson (1906–1998), U.S. – Hard disk drive * Philipp von Jolly (1809–1884), Germany – Jolly balance * Scott A. Jones (born 1960), U.S. – created one of the most successful versions of voicemail as well as ChaCha Search, a human-assisted internet Web search engine, search engine * Tom Parry Jones (1935–2013), UK – first electronic Breathalyzer * Assen Jordanoff (1896–1967), Bulgaria – airbag * Marc Jorgenson, Canada, engineer, inventor and musician * Anatol Josepho (1894–1980), patented the first coin-operated photo booth called the "Photomaton" in 1925. * Marjorie Joyner (1896–1994), U.S. – Permanent wave machine * Whitcomb Judson (1836–1909), U.S. – zipper * Percy Lavon Julian (1899–1975), U.S. – chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants * Ma Jun (mechanical engineer), Ma Jun (''fl.'' 220–265), China – south-pointing chariot (see differential gear), mechanical puppet theater, chain pumps, improved silk looms


K

* Mikhail Kalashnikov (1919–2013), Russia – AK-47 and AK-74 assault rifles (the most produced ever) *
Bob Kahn Robert Elliot Kahn (born December 23, 1938) is an American electrical engineer who, along with Vint Cerf, first proposed the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), the fundamental communication protocols at the he ...
(born 1938), together with
Vint Cerf Vinton Gray Cerf (; born June 23, 1943) is an American Internet pioneer and is recognized as one of " the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with TCP/IP co-developer Bob Kahn. He has received honorary degrees and awards that include t ...
(born 1943), U.S. –
Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet. ...
(TCP/IP) * Dawon Kahng (1931–1992), South Korea, together with Simon Sze (born 1936), Taiwan/U.S. – Floating-gate MOSFET * Dean Kamen (born 1951), U.S. – Invented the Segway HT scooter and the IBOT Mobility Device * Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853–1926), Netherlands – helium, liquid helium * Nikolay Kamov (1902–1973), Russia – armored battle
autogyro An autogyro (from Ancient Greek, Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift (force), lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an ...
, Kamov, Ka-series coaxial rotor
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and t ...
s * Pyotr Kapitsa (1894–1984), Russia – first ultrastrong magnetic field creating techniques, basic low-temperature physics inventions * Georgii Karpechenko (1899–1941), Russia – rabbage (the first ever non-sterile hybrid obtained through the crossbreeding) * Jamshīd al-Kāshī (c. 1380–1429), Persia/ Iran – plate of Conjunction (astronomy and astrology), conjunctions, analog planetary Analog computer, computer * Andrew Kay (1919–2014), U.S. – Voltmeter#Digital voltmeter, Digital voltmeter * Adolphe Kégresse (1879–1943), France/Russia – Kégresse track (first half-track and first off-road vehicle with continuous track), dual-clutch transmission * Carl D. Keith (1920–2008), together with John J. Mooney (1930–2020), U.S. – three way Catalytic converter#Types, catalytic converter * Mstislav Keldysh (1911–1978), Latvia/Russia – co-developer of Sputnik 1 (the first artificial satellite) together with Sergey Korolyov, Korolyov and Mikhail Tikhonravov, Tikhonravov * John Harvey Kellogg (1852–1943), corn flakes, cornflake breakfasts * John G. Kemeny (1926–1992), together with Thomas E. Kurtz (born 1928), Hungary/U.S. – BASIC (programming language) * Alexander Kemurdzhian (1921–2003), Russia – first space exploration Rover (space exploration), rover (Lunokhod programme, Lunokhod) * Mary Kenner (1912–2006), U.S. – sanitary napkin, sanitary belt * William Saville-Kent (1845–1908), UK/Australia – Cultured pearl, Pearl culture, see also Mikimoto Kōkichi * Kerim Kerimov (1917–2003), Azerbaijan and Russia – co-developer of human spaceflight, space dock,
space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station ...
* Jacques de Kervor (1928-2010), French industrial designer * Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958), U.S. – invented automobile self-starter ignition, Freon Tetra ethyl lead, ethyl gasoline and more * Fazlur Khan (1929–1982), Bangladesh – structural systems for high-rise skyscrapers * Yulii Khariton (1904–1996), Russia – chief designer of the Soviet atomic bomb, co-developer of the Tsar Bomba * Anatoly Kharlampiyev (1906–1979), Russia – Sambo (martial art) * Al-Khazini (''fl.''1115–1130), Persia/ Iran – hydrostatic balance * Konstantin Khrenov (1894–1984), Russia – underwater welding * Abu-Mahmud Khojandi (c. 940–1000), Persia/ Iran – sextant (astronomical), astronomical sextant * Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (Algoritmi) (c. 780–850), Persia/ Iran – modern algebra, mural instrument, horary quadrant, Sine quadrant, shadow square * Johann Kiefuss – inventor in Nuremberg in 1517 * Marcel Kiepach (1894–1915), Croatia – dynamo, maritime compass that indicates north regardless of the presence of iron or magnetic forces * Erhard Kietz (1909–1982), Germany & U.S. – signal improvements for video transmissions * Jack Kilby (1923–2005), U.S. – patented the first integrated circuit * Al-Kindi (Alkindus) (801–873), Iraq/Yemen – unambiguously described the distillation of wine in the 9th century, cryptanalysis, frequency analysis * Petrus Jacobus Kipp (1808–1864), The Netherlands – Kipp's apparatus (chemistry) * Steve Kirsch (born 1956), U.S. – Optical mouse * Fritz Klatte (1880–1934), Germany – vinyl chloride, forerunner to polyvinyl chloride * Yves Klein (1928–1962), France – International Klein Blue * Margaret E. Knight (1838–1914), U.S. – machine that completely constructs box-bottom brown paper bags * Tom Knight (scientist), Tom Knight (? – ), U.S. – BioBricks (synthetic biology) * Ivan Knunyants (1906–1990), Armenia/Russia – capron, Nylon 6, polyamide-6 * Robert Koch (1843–1910), Germany – method for culturing bacteria on solid media * Willem Johan Kolff (1911–2009), Netherlands – artificial kidney hemodialysis machine * Rudolf Kompfner (1909–1977), U.S. – Traveling-wave tube * Konstantin Konstantinov (1817/1819–1871), Russia – device for measuring flight speed of projectiles, Ballistic missile, ballistic rocket pendulum, launch pad, rocket-making machine * Sergei Korolev (1907–1966), USSR – first successful intercontinental ballistic missile (R-7 Semyorka), R-7 (rocket family), R-7 rocket family, Sputniks (including the Sputnik 1, first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite), Vostok program (including the Vostok 1, first human spaceflight) * Nikolai Korotkov (1874–1920),
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...
– auscultatory technique for blood pressure measurement * Semyon Korsakov (1787–1853),
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...
– punched card for information storage * Mikhail Koshkin (1898–1940), Russia – T-34 medium tank, the best and most produced tank of World War II * Ognjeslav Kostović Stepanović, Ognjeslav Kostović (1851–1916), Serbia/Russia – arborite (high-strength plywood, an early plastic) * Gleb Kotelnikov (1872–1944), Russia – knapsack parachute, drogue parachute * William Justin Kroll (1889–1973), Luxemburg/U.S. – Kroll process * Alfred Krupa (1915-1989), Yugoslavia – the modern wheeled suitcase, a glass-bottom boat, the skis for use in walking on water, a folding canvas catamaran * Aleksey Krylov (1863–1945), Russia – gyroscope, gyroscopic Damping ratio, damping of ships * Ivan Kulibin (1735–1818), Russia – egg-shaped clock, candle searchlight, elevator using screw mechanisms, a ''self-rolling carriage'' featuring a flywheel, brake, gear box, and bearing (mechanical), bearing, an early optical telegraph * Shen Kuo (1031–1095), China – improved gnomon, armillary sphere, Water clock, clepsydra, and sighting tube * Igor Kurchatov (1903–1960), Russia – first nuclear power plant, first
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from n ...
s for
submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
s and Nuclear marine propulsion, surface ships * Thomas E. Kurtz (born 1928), together with John G. Kemeny (1926–1992), U.S./Hungary – BASIC (programming language) * Raymond Kurzweil (born 1948), Optical character recognition; flatbed scanner * Ken Kutaragi (born 1950), Japan – PlayStation * Stephanie Kwolek (1923–2014), U.S. – Kevlar * John Howard Kyan (1774–1850), Ireland – The process of Kyanization used for wood preservation


L

* Dmitry Lachinov (1842–1902), Russia – mercury (element), mercury pump, economizer for electricity consumption, Insulator (electrical), electrical insulation tester, optical dynamometer, photometer, Electrolysis, electrolyser * René Laennec (1781–1826), France – stethoscope * Georges Lakhovsky (1869–1942), Russia/U.S. – Multiple Wave Oscillator * Hedy Lamarr (1914–2000), Austria and U.S. – Spread spectrum radio * Edwin H. Land (1909–1991), U.S. – Polaroid Corporation, Polaroid polarizing filters and the Land Camera * Samuel P. Langley (1834–1906), U.S. – bolometer * Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin (1847–1923),
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
– incandescent lamp * Irving Langmuir (1851–1957), U.S. – gas filled
incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxida ...
, hydrogen welding * Norm Larsen (1923–1970), U.S. – WD-40 * Lewis Latimer (1848–1928), U.S. – improved carbon-filament light bulb * Gustav de Laval (1845–1913), Sweden – invented the milk separator and the milking machine * Semyon Lavochkin (1900–1960), Russia – Lavochkin, La-series aircraft, first operational surface-to-air missile S-25 Berkut * John Bennet Lawes (1814–1900), UK – superphosphate or chemical fertilizer * Ernest Lawrence, Ernest Orlando Lawrence (1901–1958), U.S. – Cyclotron * Nikolai Lebedenko, Russia – Tsar Tank, the largest armored vehicle in history * Sergei Vasiljevich Lebedev, Sergei Lebedev (1874–1934), Russia – commercially viable synthetic rubber * William Lee (inventor), William Lee (1563–1614), UK – Stocking frame knitting machine * Edward Leedskalnin (1887–1951), U.S. – construction techniques used to single-handedly lift massive coral blocks in the creation of his Coral Castle * Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), The Netherlands – development of the microscope * Jerome H. Lemelson (1923–1997), U.S. – Inventions in the fields in which he patented make possible, wholly or in part, innovations like automated warehouses, industrial robots, cordless telephones, fax machines, videocassette recorders, camcorders, and the magnetic tape drive used in Sony's Walkman tape players. * Etienne Lenoir, Jean-Joseph Etienne Lenoir (1822–1900), Belgium – internal combustion engine, motorboat * Giacomo da Lentini (13th century), Italy – Sonnet * R. G. LeTourneau (1888–1969), U.S. – electric wheel, motor scraper, mobile oil drilling platform, bulldozer, cable control unit for scrapers * Rasmus Lerdorf (born 1968), Greenland/Canada – PHP (programming language) * Willard Frank Libby (1908–1980), U.S. – radiocarbon dating * Justus von Liebig (1803–1873), Germany – nitrogen-based fertilizer * Hon Lik (born 1951), China – electronic cigarette * Otto Lilienthal (1848–1896), Germany – hang gliding, hang glider * Lin Yutang (1895–1976), China/U.S. – Chinese typewriter, Chinese language typewriter * Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974), U.S. – organ perfusion pump * Frans Wilhelm Lindqvist (1862–1931), Sweden – Kerosene stove operated by compressed air * Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), Sweden – formal Binomial nomenclature for living organisms, Linnaeus' flower clock, Horologium Florae * Hans Lippershey (1570–1619), The Netherlands – associated with the appearance of the telescope * Gabriel Lippmann, Jonas Ferdinand Gabriel Lippmann (1845–1921), France – Lippmann plate, Integral imaging, Lippmann electrometer * Lisitsyns, Lisitsyn brothers, Ivan Fyodorovich and Nazar Fyodorovich, Russia – samovar (the first documented makers) * William Howard Livens (1889–1964), UK – chemical warfare – Livens Projector * Eduard Locher (1840–1910), Switzerland – Rack railway#Locher, Locher rack railway system * Fredrik Ljungström (1875–1964) and Birger Ljungström (1872–1948), Sweden - Ljungström turbine, Ljungström air preheater, Ljungström method * Alexander Lodygin (1847–1923), Russia – electrical filament,
incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxida ...
with tungsten filament * Louis Lombard-Gérin (1848-1918), France - trolleybus * Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765), Russia – night vision telescope, off-axis reflecting telescope, coaxial rotor, re-invented smalt * Yury Lomonosov (1876–1952), Russia/UK – first successful mainline diesel locomotive * Aleksandr Loran (1849 – after 1911), Russia – fire fighting foam, Fire extinguisher#Foams, foam extinguisher * Oleg Losev (1903–1942), Russia – light-emitting diode, crystadine * Antoine Louis (1723–1792), France – Guillotine * Archibald Low (1882–1956), UK – Pioneer of radio guidance systems * Ed Lowe (businessman), Ed Lowe (1920–1995), U.S. – Cat litter * Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy (1909–2001), Russia – Buran (spacecraft), Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105, Spiral project * Ignacy Łukasiewicz (1822–1882), Poland – Kerosene lamp * Auguste and Louis Lumière (1862–1954 and 1864–1948), France – Cinématographe * Cai Lun, 蔡倫 (50–121), China – paper * Giovanni Luppis or Ivan Vukić (1813–1875), Austrian Empire (ethnical Croatian, from Rijeka) – self-propelled torpedo * Richard F. Lyon (born 1952), U.S. – Optical mouse * Arkhip Mikhailovich Lyulka, Arkhip Lyulka (1908–1984), Russia – first double jet turbofan engine, Lyulka, other Soviet aircraft engines


M

* Charles Macintosh (1766–1843), Scotland – waterproof raincoat, life vest * Theodore Maiman (1927–2007), U.S. – Laser, see also Gordon Gould * Ahmed Majan (born 1963), UAE – instrumented racehorse saddle and others * Alexander Alexeyevich Makarov, Aleksandr Makarov (born 1966), Russia/Germany – Orbitrap mass spectrometer * Stepan Makarov (1849–1904), Russia – Icebreaker Yermak, the first true icebreaker able to ride over and crush pack ice * Victor Makeev (1924–1985), Russia – first submarine-launched ballistic missile * Nestor Makhno (1888–1934), Ukraine/Russia – tachanka * Dmitri Dmitrievich Maksutov (1896–1964), Russia – Maksutov telescope * Annie Malone (1869–1957), U.S. – Annie Malone, Cosmetics for African American women * Sergey Malyutin (1859–1937), Russia – designed the first matryoshka doll (together with Vasily Zvyozdochkin) * Al-Ma'mun (786–833), Iraq – singing bird Automaton, automata, terrestrial globe * Boris Aleksandrovich Mamyrin, Boris Mamyrin (1919–2007), Russia – reflectron (ion mirror) * George William Manby (1765–1854), UK – Fire extinguisher * Harry Mendell US - invented the first Sampler (musical instrument), digital sampling synthesizer * Joy Mangano (born 1956), U.S. – household appliances * Anna Mangin (1844-1931), American inventor, educator, caterer and women's rights campaigner * Charles Mantoux (1877–1947), France – Mantoux test (tuberculosis) * Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937), Italy – radio telegraphy * Gheorghe Marinescu (1863–1938), Romania – the first science films in the world in the neurology clinic in Bucharest (1898–1901) * Sylvester Marsh (1803–1884), U.S. – Rack railway#Marsh, Marsh rack railway system * Konosuke Matsushita (1894–1989), Japan – battery-powered Bicycle lighting * Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf (1526–1585), Syria/Egypt/Turkey – steam turbine, six-Cylinder (engine), cylinder 'Monobloc' suction pump, Sextant (astronomical), framed sextant * Alex Mashinsky (born 1965), U.S. - VoIP * John Landis Mason (1826–1902), U.S. – Antique fruit jar, Mason jars * Fujio Masuoka (born 1943), Japan – Flash memory * John W. Mauchly (1907–1980), U.S. – ENIAC – the first general purpose programmable digital computer * Henry Maudslay (1771–1831), UK – screw-cutting lathe, bench Micrometer (device), micrometer * Hiram Maxim (1840–1916), U.S. born, UK – First self-powered machine gun * James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) and Thomas Sutton (photographer), Thomas Sutton, Scotland – color photography * Stanley Mazor (born 1941), U.S. –
microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...
* John Loudon McAdam (1756–1836), Scotland – improved "macadam" road surface * Elijah McCoy (1843–1929), Canada – Displacement lubricator * Nicholas McKay (inventor), Nicholas McKay Sr. (1920–2014), U.S. – Lint roller * Frederick McKinley Jones (1893–1961), U.S. – 22 patents, the most prominent for an automatic refrigeration system for long-haul trucks * James McLurkin (born 1972), U.S. – Ant robotics (robotics) * Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (1845–1916), Russia – probiotics * Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès (1817–1880), France – margarine * Mordecai Meirowitz (born 1930), Roumania / Israel – Mastermind (board game) * Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907), Russia – Periodic table, pycnometer, pyrocollodion * Richard B. Merrill (1949–2008), U.S. – Foveon X3 sensor * George de Mestral (1907–1990), Switzerland – Velcro * Robert Metcalfe (born 1946), U.S. – Ethernet * Antonio Meucci (1808–1889), Italy/U.S. – various early telephones, a hygrometer, a Antonio Meucci, milk test * Édouard Michelin (born 1859), Édouard Michelin (1859–1940), France – pneumatic tire * Anthony Michell (1870–1959), Australia – tilting pad thrust bearing, crankless engine * Artem Mikoyan (1905–1970), Armenia/Russia – MiG-series fighter aircraft, including world's List of most produced aircraft, most produced jet aircraft Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, MiG-15 and most produced supersonic aircraft Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, MiG-21 (together with Mikhail Gurevich (aircraft designer), Mikhail Gurevich) * Alexander Mikulin (1895–1985), Russia – Mikulin AM-34 and other Soviet aircraft engines, co-developer of the Tsar Tank * Mikhail Mil (1909–1970), Russia – Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, Mi-series
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and t ...
aircraft, including Mil Mi-8 (the world's List of most produced aircraft, most-produced helicopter) and Mil Mi-12 (the world's largest helicopter) * Alexander Miles (1838–1918), U.S. – system for automatically opening and closing elevator doors * David L. Mills (born 1938), U.S. – Fuzzball router, Network Time Protocol * Marvin Minsky (1927–2016), U.S. – Confocal microscopy * Tokushichi Mishima (1893–1975), Japan – MKM steel, MKM magnetic steel * Pavel Molchanov (1893–1941), Russia – Radiosonde * Jules Montenier (1895–1962), U.S. – Anti-perspirant deodorant * Montgolfier brothers (1740–1810) and (1745–1799), France – hot air balloon * John J. Montgomery (1858–1911), U.S. – heavier-than-air gliders * Narcis Monturiol i Estarriol (1819–1885), Spain – steam powered
submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
* Robert Moog (1934–2005), U.S. – the Moog synthesizer * John J. Mooney (1930–2020), together with Carl D. Keith (1920–2008), U.S. – three way Catalytic converter#Types, catalytic converter * Roland Moreno (1945–2012), France – inventor of the smart card * Samuel Morey (1762–1843), U.S. – internal combustion engine * Garrett A. Morgan (1877–1963), U.S. – inventor of the smoke hood * Alexander Alexandrovich Morozov, Alexander Morozov (1904–1979), Russia – T-54/55 (the most produced tank in history), co-developer of T-34 * Walter Frederick Morrison (1920–2010), U.S. – Flying disc * William Morrison (dentist) (1860–1926), U.S. – Cotton candy machine * Samuel F. B. Morse, Samuel Morse (1791–1872), U.S. – early Morse code, see also Alfred Vail#Controversy over Morse Code, Morse Code controversy * Sergei Ivanovich Mosin (1849–1902), Russia – Mosin–Nagant rifle * Motorins, Ivan Feodorovich (1660s–1735) and his son Mikhail Ivanovich (?–1750), Russia – Tsar Bell * Vera Mukhina (1889–1953), Russia – welded sculpture * Kary Mullis (1944–2019), U.S. – Polymerase chain reaction, PCR *
Fe del Mundo Fe Villanueva del Mundo, , (born Fé Primitiva del Mundo y Villanueva; 27 November 1911 – 6 August 2011) was a Filipina pediatrician. She founded the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines and is known for shaping the modern child health ...
(1911–2011), Philippines – Neonatal intensive care unit, medical incubator made out of bamboo for use in rural communities without electrical power * Colin Murdoch (1929–2008), New Zealand – Tranquillizer gun, disposable hypodermic syringe * William Murdoch (1754–1839), Scotland – Gas lighting * Jozef Murgas (1864–1929), Slovakia – inventor of the wireless telegraph (forerunner of the radio) * Evgeny Murzin (1914–1970), Russia – ANS synthesizer * Banū Mūsā brothers, Muhammad (c. 800–873), Ahmad (803–873), Al-Hasan (810–873), Iraq – Mechanical puzzle, mechanical trick devices, hurricane lamp, self-trimming and self-feeding Oil lamp, lamp, gas mask, Dredging#Grab, clamshell grab, fail-safe system, mechanical musical instrument, automatic flute player, Program (machine), programmable machine * Pieter van Musschenbroek (1692–1761), Netherlands – Leyden jar, pyrometer * Walton Musser (1909–1998), U.S. – Harmonic drive gear * Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904), UK – motion picture * Ted Myerson (born 1975), U.S. – data cloud computing system patents


N

* Georgi Nadjakov (1896–1981), Bulgaria – :wikt:photoelectret * Alexander Nadiradze (1914–1987), Georgia/Russia – first mobile ICBM (RT-21 Temp 2S), first reliable mobile ICBM (RT-2PM Topol) * Nagai Nagayoshi (1844–1929), Japan – Methamphetamine * James Naismith (1861–1939), Canadian born, U.S. – invented basketball and American football helmet * Yoshiro Nakamatsu (born 1928), Japan – "PyonPyon" spring shoes, digital watch, CinemaScope, chair, armchair "Cerebrex", sauce pump, Taximeter, taxicab meter * Shuji Nakamura (born 1954), Japan – Blue laser * John Napier (1550–1617), Scotland – logarithms * Andrey Nartov (1683–1756), Russia – first lathe with a mechanic Tool bit, cutting tool-supporting Lathe carriage, carriage and a set of
gear A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic pr ...
s, fast-fire artillery battery, battery on a rotating disc, Screw (simple machine), screw mechanism for changing the artillery fire angle, Gauge (bore diameter), gauge–boring (manufacturing), boring lathe for cannon-making, early telescopic sight * James Nasmyth (1808–1890), Scotland – steam hammer * Giulio Natta (1903–1979), together with Karl Ziegler (1898–1973), Italy/Germany – Ziegler–Natta catalyst * William Neade (fl.1624–1637), England – weapon combining a longbow and a pike * Nebuchadrezzar II (634–562 BC), Iraq (Mesopotamia) – screw, Archimedes' screw, screwpump * Erwin Neher (born 1944), together with Bert Sakmann (1942–), Germany – Patch clamp technique * Ted Nelson (born 1937), U.S. – Hypertext, Hypermedia * Sergey Nepobedimiy (1921–2014), Russia – first supersonic anti-tank guided missile ''Sturm'', other Soviet rocket weaponry * Karl Nessler (1872–1951), Germany/U.S. – Permanent wave machine, Karl Nessler, artificial eyebrows * Bernard de Neumann (1943–2018), UK – massively parallel self-configuring multi-processor * John von Neumann (1903–1957), Hungary – Von Neumann Von Neumann architecture, computer architecture, Stochastic computing, Merge sort algorithm * Isaac Newton (1642–1727), UK – reflecting telescope (which reduces chromatic aberration) * Miguel Nicolelis (born 1961), Brazil – Brain-machine interfaces * Nicéphore Niépce, Joseph Nicephore Niépce (1765–1833), France – photography * Nikolai Nikitin (1907–1973), Russia – prestressed concrete with wire ropes structure (Ostankino Tower), Nikitin-Travush 4000 project (precursor to X-Seed 4000) * Paul Gottlieb Nipkow (1860–1940), Germany – Nipkow disk * Jun-ichi Nishizawa (1926–2018), Japan – Optical communication system, SIT/SITh (Static Induction Transistor/Thyristor), Laser diode, PIN diode * Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), Sweden – dynamite * Ludvig Nobel (1831–1888), Sweden/Russia – first successful oil tanker * Emmy Noether (1882–1935), Germany, groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics; Noether's Theorem * Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700–1770), France – Electroscope * Wilhelm Normann (1870–1939), Germany – Hydrogenation, Hydrogenation of fats * Carl Richard Nyberg (1858–1939), Sweden – the blowtorch


O

* Aaron D. O'Connell (born 1981), U.S. – first Quantum machine * Joseph John O'Connell (1861–1959), U.S. – number of inventions relating to telephony and electrical engineering * Wilgott Theophil Odhner, Theophil Wilgodt Odhner (1845–1903), Sweden/Russia – the Odhner Arithmometer, a Calculator#The 19th century, mechanical calculator * Paul Offit (born 1951), U.S., along with Fred Clark and Stanley Plotkin, invented a pentavalent Rotavirus vaccine * Jarkko Oikarinen (born 1967), Finland – Internet Relay Chat, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) * Katsuhiko Okamoto (?–), Japan – Katsuhiko Okamoto, Okamoto Cubes = modifications of Rubik's Cube * Ransom Eli Olds (1864–1950), U.S. – Assembly line * Lucien Olivier (1838–1883), Belgium or France / Russia – Russian salad (Olivier salad) * Gerard K. O'Neill (1927–1992), U.S. – Storage ring (physics) * J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967), United States – Atomic bomb * Hugh Orr (inventor), Hugh Orr (1715–1798), U.S. – machine for cleaning flax seed * Hans Christian Ørsted (1777–1851), Denmark – electromagnetism, aluminium * Elisha Otis (1811–1861), U.S. – safety system for elevators * William Oughtred (1575–1660), UK – slide rule


P

* Arogyaswami Paulraj (born 1944), India/U.S. – MIMO * Antonio Pacinotti (1841–1912), Italy – Dynamo#Pacinotti dynamo, Pacinotti dynamo * Hilary Page (1904-1957), UK – Self-Locking Building Bricks, the predecessor of
Lego Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocki ...
* Larry Page (born 1973), U.S. – with Sergey Brin invented Google Search, Google web search engine * William Painter (inventor), William Painter (1838–1906), UK/U.S. – Crown cork, William Painter (inventor), Bottle opener * Salvatore Pais (born 1967), Romania/U.S. – an electromagnetic field generator to deflect asteroids away from the Earth, an inertial mass reduction device, a room-temperature superconductor, a gravitational wave generator, and a compact fusion reactor * Alexey Pajitnov (born 1956), Russia/U.S. – Tetris * Julio Palmaz (born 1945), Argentina – balloon-expandable, stent * Helge Palmcrantz (1842–1880), Sweden – the multi-barrel, lever-actuated,
machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles ...
* Daniel David Palmer (1845–1913), Canada – chiropractic * Luigi Palmieri (1807–1896), Italy – seismometer * Frank Pantridge (1916–2004), Ireland – Defibrillation#Portable units become available, Portable defibrillator * Georgios Papanikolaou (1883–1962), Greece / U.S. – Papanicolaou stain, Pap test = Pap smear * Alice H. Parker (1895–1920), U.S. – central heating using natural gas Furnace (house heating), furnace * Philip M. Parker (born 1960), U.S. – computer automated book authoring * Thomas Parker (inventor), Thomas Parker (1843–1915), England – electric car * Alexander Parkes (1831–1890), UK – celluloid * Florence Parpart ( 1856–?), U.S. – industrial sweeping machine, electrical refrigerator * Forrest Parry (1921–2005), U.S. – Magnetic stripe card * Charles Algernon Parsons (1854–1931), British – steam turbine * Spede Pasanen (1930–2001), Finland – ski jumping sling, boat ski * Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), France – Pascal's calculator * Gustaf Erik Pasch (1788–1862), Sweden – safety match * Dimitar Paskov (1914–1986), Bulgaria – Galantamine * C. Kumar N. Patel (born 1938), India/U.S. – Carbon dioxide laser * Les Paul (1915–2009), U.S. – multitrack recording * Andreas Pavel (born 1945), Brazil – audio devices * Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), Russia, – classical conditioning * Floyd Paxton (1918–1975), U.S. – Bread clip * John Pemberton (1831–1888), U.S. – Coca-Cola * Slavoljub Eduard Penkala (1871–1922), Croatia – mechanical pencil * Ralph Peo (1897–1966), U.S. – early Automobile air conditioning, shock absorbers * William Henry Perkin (1838–1907), UK – first synthetic organic chemical dye Mauveine * Henry Perky (1843–1906), U.S. – shredded wheat *
Alfred Perot Jean-Baptiste Alfred Perot (; 3 November 1863 – 28 November 1925) was a French physicist. Together with his colleague Charles Fabry he developed the Fabry–Pérot interferometer in 1899. The French Academy of Sciences awarded him the Ja ...
(1863–1925), together with
Charles Fabry Maurice Paul Auguste Charles Fabry (; 11 June 1867 – 11 December 1945) was a French physicist. Life Fabry graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris and received his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1892, for his work on i ...
(1867–1945), France –
Fabry–Pérot interferometer In optics, a Fabry–Pérot interferometer (FPI) or etalon is an optical cavity made from two parallel reflecting surfaces (i.e.: thin mirrors). Optical waves can pass through the optical cavity only when they are in resonance with it. It is n ...
(physics) * Stephen Perry (inventor), Stephen Perry, UK (''fl.'' 19th century) – rubber band * Aurel Persu (1890–1977), Romania – first aerodynamic car, aluminum body with wheels included under the body, 1922 * Vladimir Petlyakov (1891–1942), Russia – heavy bomber * Julius Richard Petri (1852–1921), Germany – Petri dish * Peter Petroff (1919–2004), Bulgaria – digital wrist watch, heart monitor, weather instruments * Fritz Pfleumer (1881–1945), Germany – magnetic tape * Auguste Piccard (1884–1962), Switzerland – Bathyscaphe * Gregory Goodwin Pincus (1903–1967), together with
Min Chueh Chang Min Chueh Chang (, October 10, 1908 – June 5, 1991), often credited as M.C. Chang, was a Chinese-American reproductive biologist. His specific area of study was the fertilisation process in mammalian reproduction. Though his career produced ...
(1908–1991), U.S./China –
Combined oral contraceptive pill The combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), often referred to as the birth control pill or colloquially as "the pill", is a type of birth control that is designed to be taken orally by women. The pill contains two important hormones: progesti ...
* Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov (1810–1881), Russia – early use of diethyl ether, ether as anaesthetic, first anaesthesia in a field operation, various kinds of surgical operations * Fyodor Pirotsky (1845–1898), Russia – electric tram * Arthur Pitney (1871–1933), U.S. – postage meter * Hippolyte Pixii (1808–1835), France – Dynamo#Pixii's dynamo, Pixii dynamo * Joseph Plateau (1801–1883), Belgium – phenakistiscope (stroboscope) * Baltzar von Platen (inventor), Baltzar von Platen (1898–1984), Sweden – gas absorption refrigerator * James Leonard Plimpton (1828–1911), U.S. – quad skates, roller skates * Ivan Plotnikov (1902–1995), Russia – kirza leather * Roy Plunkett (1910–1994), U.S. – Teflon * Petrache Poenaru (1799–1875), Romania – fountain pen * Christopher Polhem (1661–1751), Sweden – Padlock * Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov, Nikolai Polikarpov (1892–1944), Russia – Polikarpov, Po-series aircraft, including Polikarpov Po-2 ''Kukuruznik'' (world's List of most produced aircraft, most produced biplane) * Eugene Polley (1915–2012), U.S. – wireless remote control (with Robert Adler) * Ivan Polzunov (1728–1766), Russia – first two-cylinder steam engine * Mikhail Pomortsev (1851–1916), Russia – nephoscope * Olivia Poole (1889–1975), U.S. – the Jolly Jumper baby harness * Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Alexander Popov (1859–1906), Russia – radio pioneer, created a radio receiver that worked as a lightning detector * Nikolay Popov (1931–2008), Russia – first fully gas turbine main battle tank (T-80) * Josef Popper (1838–1921), Austria – discovered the transmission of power by electricity. * Aleksandr Porokhovschikov (1892–1941), Russia – Vezdekhod (the first prototype tank, or tankette, and the first continuous track, caterpillar amphibious ATV) * Ignazio Porro (1801–1875), Italy – Porro prism, strip camera * Valdemar Poulsen (1869–1942), Denmark – Wire recording, magnetic wire recorder, arc converter * Joseph Priestley (1733–1804), UK – soda water * Robert Taylor Pritchett (1828–1907), UK – Pritchett bullet * Alexander Procofieff de Seversky (1894–1974), Russia/U.S. – first gyroscope, gyroscopically stabilized bombsight, ionocraft, also developed air-to-air refueling * Alexander Prokhorov (1916–2002), Russia – co-inventor of
laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The f ...
and
maser A maser (, an acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves through amplification by stimulated emission. The first maser was built by Charles H. Townes, Jame ...
* Petro Prokopovych (1775–1850),
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...
– early Frame (beehive), beehive frame, queen excluder and other beekeeping novelties * Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky (1863–1944), Russia/France – early colour photography method based on three colour channels, also colour film slides and colour motion pictures * Mark Publicover (born 1958), U.S. – first affordable trampoline safety net enclosure * George Pullman (1831–1897), U.S. – Pullman sleeping car, sleep wagon * Michael I. Pupin (1858–1935), Serbia – pupinization (loading coils), tunable oscillator * Tivadar Puskás (1844–1893), Hungary – telephone exchange


Q

* Calvin Quate (1923–2019), with
Gerd Binnig Gerd Binnig (; born 20 July 1947) is a German physicist. He is most famous for having won the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Heinrich Rohrer in 1986 for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope. Early life and education Binnig w ...
(born 1947), and with Christoph Gerber (1942–), U.S./Germany/Switzerland – Atomic force microscope * Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874), France/Belgium – Body mass index, Body mass index (BMI)


R

* Jacob Rabinow (1910–1999), U.S. – Magnetic particle clutch, various Phonograph-related patents * John Goffe Rand (1801–1873), U.S. – Tube (container) * Robert Ransome (1753–1830), England – improvement to the plough * Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) (865–965), Persia/ Iran – distillation and Extraction (chemistry), extraction methods, sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid, soap kerosene, kerosene lamp, chemotherapy, sodium hydroxide * Alec Reeves (1902–1971), UK – Pulse-code modulation * Karl von Reichenbach (1788–1869), Germany – Kerosene, paraffin, creosote, creosote oil, phenol * Tadeus Reichstein (1897–1996), Poland/Switzerland – Reichstein process (industrial vitamin C synthesis) * Ira Remsen (1846–1927), U.S. – saccharin * Ralf Reski (born 1958), Germany – Moss bioreactor 1998 * Josef Ressel (1793–1857), Czechoslovakia – ship propeller * William Reynolds (industrialist), William Reynolds (1758–1803), England – canal inclined plane * Ri Sung-gi (1905–1996), North Korea – Vinylon * Charles Francis Richter (1900–1985), U.S. – Richter magnitude scale * Adolph Rickenbacker (1886–1976), Switzerland – Electric guitar * Hyman George Rickover (1900–1986), U.S. – Nuclear submarine * Niklaus Riggenbach (1817–1899), Switzerland – Rack railway#Riggenbach, Riggenbach rack railway system, Counter-pressure brake * Dennis Ritchie (1941–2011), U.S. – C (programming language) * Gilles de Roberval (1602–1675), France – Roberval balance * John Roebuck (1718–1794) UK – lead chamber process for sulfuric acid synthesis * Francis Rogallo (1912–2009), U.S. – Rogallo wing *
Heinrich Rohrer Heinrich Rohrer (6 June 1933 – 16 May 2013) was a Swiss physicist who shared half of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gerd Binnig for the design of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). The other half of the Prize was awarded to Ernst ...
(1933–2013), together with
Gerd Binnig Gerd Binnig (; born 20 July 1947) is a German physicist. He is most famous for having won the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Heinrich Rohrer in 1986 for the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope. Early life and education Binnig w ...
(1947–), Switzerland/Germany –
Scanning tunneling microscope A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is a type of microscope used for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. Its development in 1981 earned its inventors, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, then at IBM Zürich, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986. ...
* Peter I of Russia, Peter I the Great (Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov), Tsar and Emperor of Russia (1672–1725), Russia – decimal currency, yacht club, sounding line with separating plumb-bob, plummet (Deep-sea exploration#Oceanographic Instrumentation, sounding weight probe) * Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845–1923), Germany – the X-ray machine * Ida Rosenthal (1886–1973), Belarus/Russia/U.S. – Bra (Maidenform), the standard of Bra sizing, cup sizes, nursing bra, full-figured bra, the first seamed uplift bra (all with her husband William) * Sidney Rosenthal (1907–1979), U.S. – Magic Marker * Eugene Roshal (born 1972), Russia – FAR Manager, FAR file manager, RAR (file format), RAR file format, WinRAR file archiver * Boris Rosing (1869–1933), Russia – CRT television (first television system using cathode ray tube, CRT on the receiving side) * Guido van Rossum (born 1956), The Netherlands – Python (programming language) * M. A. Rothman, Michael Rothman, U.S. – UEFI * Subrata Roy (scientist) (born 1962), India, U.S. – Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle, Serpentine geometry plasma actuator, Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle#Novel Technologies, micro-scale actuators * Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier (1754–1785), France – Rozière balloon * Ernő Rubik (born 1944), Hungary – Rubik's Cube, Rubik's Magic and Rubik's Clock * Ernst Ruska (1906–1988), Germany – electron microscope * François van Rysselberghe (1846–1893), Belgium – Universal meteorograph, Condenser telephone


S

* Albert Sabin, Albert Bruce Sabin (1906–1993), U.S. – oral Polio vaccine * Alexander Sablukov (1783–1857), Russia – centrifugal fan * Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu (1385–1468), Turkey – illustrated Surgery, surgical atlas * Quasiturbine, Gilles Saint-Hilaire (born 1948), Canada – Quasiturbine, Qurbine * Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989), Russia – invented explosively pumped flux compression generator, co-developed the Tsar Bomb and tokamak * Jonas Salk, Jonas Edward Salk (1914–1995), U.S. – injection Polio vaccine * Robert Salmon (inventor), Robert Salmon (1763–1821), England – agricultural implements * Franz San Galli (1824–1908), Poland/Russia (Italian people, Italian and German people, German descent) – radiator, central heating * Frederick Sanger (1918–2013), U.S. – Sanger sequencing (= DNA sequencing) * Larry Sanger (born 1968), together with Jimmy Wales, U.S. – Wikipedia * Yoshiyuki Sankai (born c. 1957), Japan – HAL (robot), Robotic exoskeleton for motion support (medicine) * Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873–1932), Brazil – airship, non-rigid airship and airplane * Arthur William Savage (1857–1938) – radial tires, magazine (firearms), gun magazines, Savage Model 99 lever action rifle * Thomas Savery (1650–1715), UK – steam engine * Adolphe Sax (1814–1894), Belgium – saxophone * Vincent Schaefer, Vincent Joseph Schaefer (1906–1993), U.S. – Cloud seeding by dry ice * Bela Schick (1877–1967), Hungary – Schick test, diphtheria test * Wilhelm Schickard (1592–1635), Germany – mechanical calculator * Hugo Schiff (1834–1915), Germany – Schiff test (histology) * Pavel Schilling (1786–1837), Estonia/Russia – first electromagnetic telegraph, Land mine, mine with an electric fuse (electrical), fuse * Gilmore Schjeldahl (1912–2002), U.S. – Airsickness bag * Hubert Schlafly (1919–2011), U.S. – Teleprompter = Teleprompter, Autocue * Wilhelm Schlenk (1879–1943), Germany – Schlenk flask (chemistry) * Bernhard Schmidt (1879–1935), Estonia/Germany – Schmidt camera * Friedrich Schmiedl (1902–1994), Austria – rocket mail * Otto Schmitt (1913–1998), U.S. – Schmitt trigger (electronics) * Christian Schnabel (1878–1936), German – simplistic food cutleries * Kees A. Schouhamer Immink (born 1946), Netherlands – Major contributor to development of Compact Disc * August Schrader (1807–1894), U.S. – Schrader valve for Pneumatic tire * David Schwarz (aviation inventor), David Schwarz (1852–1897), Croatia, – rigid airship, later called Zeppelin * Raymond Scott (1908–1994), U.S. – inventor and developer of electronic music technology * Girolamo Segato (1792–1836), Italy – artificial petrifaction of human cadavers * Marc Seguin (1786–1875), France – suspension bridge, wire-cable suspension bridge * Hanaoka Seishū (1760–1835), Japan – General anaesthetic * Ted Selker (inv. 1987), U.S. – Pointing stick * Sennacherib (705–681 BC), Iraq (Mesopotamia) – screw pump * Léon Serpollet (1858–1907), France – Flash boiler, Gardner-Serpollet, Gardner-Serpollet steam car * Iwan Serrurier (1878–1953), Netherlands/U.S. – inventor of the Moviola for film editing * Mark Serrurier (1904–1988), U.S. – Serrurier truss for Optical telescopes * Gerhard Sessler (born 1931), Germany – electret microphone, foil electret microphone, microphone#MEMS microphone, silicon microphone * Guy Severin (1926–2008), Russia – extra-vehicular activity supporting system * Ed Seymour (inv. c. 1949), U.S. – Aerosol paint * Leonty Shamshurenkov (1687–1758), Russia – first self-propelling carriage (a precursor to both bicycle and
automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...
), projects of an original odometer and self-propelling sledge * Ibn al-Shatir (1304–1375), Syria – "jewel box" device which combined a compass with a universal sundial * Bi Sheng () (c. 990–1051), China – clay movable type
printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The e ...
* Patsy O’Connell Sherman (1930–2008), U.S. – Scotchgard * Murasaki Shikibu (c. 973–1025), Japan – psychological novel * Pyotr Shilovsky (1871–1957), Russia/UK – gyrocar * Masatoshi Shima (born 1943), Japan –
microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...
* Fathullah Shirazi (c. 1582), Mughal Empire, Mughal India – early volley gun * Joseph Shivers (1920–2014), U.S. – Spandex * William Shockley, William Bradford Shockley (1910–1989), U.S. – co-inventor of transistor * Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), UK – Shrapnel shell ammunition * Vladimir Shukhov (1853–1939), Russia – Cracking (chemistry), thermal cracking (Shukhov cracking process), thin-shell structure, tensile structure, hyperboloid structure, gridshell, Pipeline transport, oil pipeline, cylindric oil depot * Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor (born 1972), Malaysia – Cell (biology), cell growth in outer space, crystallization of proteins and microbes in space * Augustus Siebe (1788–1872), Germany/UK – Inventor of the standard diving dress * Carl Wilhelm Siemens, Sir William Siemens (1823–1883), Germany – Siemens regenerative furnace, regenerative furnace * Werner von Siemens (1816–1892), Germany – electric elevator, Electromote (= first trolleybus), an early Dynamo#Siemens and Wheatstone dynamo (1867), Dynamo * Al-Sijzi (c. 945–1020), Persia/ Iran – Heliocentrism, heliocentric
astrolabe An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستاره‌یاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...
* Igor Sikorsky (1889–1972), Russia/U.S. – first four-engine fixed-wing aircraft (Russky Vityaz), first airliner and purpose-designed bomber (Sikorsky Ilya Muromets, Ilya Muromets),
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and t ...
, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, Sikorsky-series helicopters * Bernard Silver (1924–1963), together with Norman Joseph Woodland (1921–2012), U.S. – Barcode * Kia Silverbrook (born 1958), Australia – Memjet printer, world's most List of prolific inventors, prolific inventor * Vladimir Simonov (engineer), Vladimir Simonov (1935–2020), Russia – APS Underwater Assault Rifle, SPP-1 underwater pistol * Charles Simonyi (born 1948), Hungary – Hungarian notation * Avicenna, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980–1037), Persia/ Iran – steam distillation, essential oil, pharmacopoeia, clinical pharmacology, clinical trial, randomized controlled trial, quarantine, cancer surgery, Alternative cancer treatments, cancer therapy, pharmacotherapy, phytotherapy, Hindiba, Taxus baccata L, calcium channel blocker * Clive Sinclair (1940-2021), U.K. - Sinclair C5, ZX Spectrum and A-bike * Isaac Singer (1811–1875), U.S. – sewing machine * B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), U.S. – Operant conditioning chamber * Nikolay Slavyanov (1854–1897), Russia – shielded metal arc welding * Alexander Smakula (1900–1983), Ukraine/Russia/U.S. – anti-reflective coating * Michael Smith (chemist), Michael Smith (1932–2000), U.S. – Site-directed mutagenesis (molecular biology) *
Oliver Smithies Oliver Smithies (23 June 1925 – 10 January 2017) was a British-American geneticist and physical biochemist. He is known for introducing starch as a medium for gel electrophoresis in 1955, and for the discovery, simultaneously with Mario Capecc ...
(1925–2017), together with Sir Martin John Evans (born 1941), and Mario Ramberg Capecchi (born 1937), U.S. –
Knockout mouse A knockout mouse, or knock-out mouse, is a genetically modified mouse (''Mus musculus'') in which researchers have inactivated, or "knocked out", an existing gene by replacing it or disrupting it with an artificial piece of DNA. They are important ...
,
Gene targeting Gene targeting (also, replacement strategy based on homologous recombination) is a genetic technique that uses homologous recombination to modify an endogenous gene. The method can be used to delete a gene, remove exons, add a gene and modify ...
* Yefim Smolin, Russia – table-glass (''stakan granyonyi'') * Friedrich Soennecken (1848–1919), Germany – Ring binder, Hole punch * Su Song (1020–1101), China – first chain drive * Marin Soljačić (born 1974), Croatia – Resonant inductive coupling * Edwin Southern (born 1938), U.S. – Southern blot (molecular biology) * Alfred P. Southwick (1826–1898), U.S. – Electric chair * Igor Spassky (born 1926), Russia – Sea Launch platform * Percy Spencer (1894–1970), U.S. – microwave oven * Elmer Ambrose Sperry (1860–1930), U.S. – gyroscope-guided autopilot, automatic pilot * Lyman Spitzer (1914–1997), U.S. – Stellarator (physics) * Bhargav Sri Prakash (born 1977), India/U.S. – Digital data, Digital vaccines, learnification platform at FriendsLearn, virtual reality system, electromagnetic collision avoidance system, On-board diagnostics, OBD based in-vehicle powertrain performance measurement, rate-based driver controls for drive by wire systems * Ladislas Starevich (1882–1965), Russia/France – puppet animation, live-action/animated film * Gary Starkweather (1938–2019), U.S. – laser printer, color management * John Kemp Starley (1855-1901), U.K. - safety bicycle * Betsey Ann Stearns (1830-1914), U.S. – garment cutting diagram and system * Boris Stechkin (1891–1969), Russia – co-developer of Sikorsky Ilya Muromets and Tsar Tank, developer of Soviet heat engine, heat and aircraft engines * George Stephenson (1781–1848), UK – steam railway * Simon Stevin (1548–1620), Netherlands – land yacht * Andreas Stihl (1896–1973), Switzerland/Germany – Electric chain saw * Robert Stirling, Reverend Dr Robert Stirling (1790–1878), Scotland – Stirling engine * Aurel Stodola (1859–1942), Slovakia – gas turbines * Aleksandr Stoletov (1839–1896), Russia – first solar cell based on the outer photoelectric effect * Levi Strauss (1829–1902), U.S. – blue jeans * John Stringfellow (1799–1883), UK – aerial steam carriage * Bjarne Stroustrup (born 1950), Denmark – C++ (programming language) * Almon Strowger (1839–1902), U.S. – automatic telephone exchange * Emil Strub (1858–1909), Switzerland – Rack railway#Strub, Strub rack railway system * Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) (903–986), Persia/ Iran – timekeeping
astrolabe An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستاره‌یاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...
, Mariner's astrolabe, navigational astrolabe, surveying astrolabe * René Núñez Suárez (born 1945/1946), El Salvador – "turbococina" (turbo-cooker) * Kyota Sugimoto (1882–1972), Japan – Japanese typewriter, Japanese language typewriter * Mutsuo Sugiura (1918–1986), Japan – Esophagogastroduodenoscopy, Esophagogastroduodenoscope * Pavel Sukhoi (1895–1975), Russia – Sukhoi, Su-series fighter aircraft * Simon Sunatori (born 1959), Canada – inventor of MagneScribe and Magic Spicer * Sushruta (600 BC), Vedic India – inventor of Plastic Surgery, Cataract Surgery, Rhinoplasty * Theodor Svedberg (1884–1971), Sweden – Ultracentrifuge, Analytical ultracentrifuge * Joseph Swan (1828–1914), UK – Incandescent light bulb * Robert Swanson (inventor), Robert Swanson (1905–1994), Canada – invented and developed the first multi-chime train horn, air horn for use with diesel locomotives * Remi Swierczek (born 1958), Poland – inventor of Music Identification System and the Mico Changer (coin hopper and dispenser used in casinos) * Andrei Sychra (c.1773/76–1850), Lithuania/Russia, Czech people, Czech descent – Russian guitar, Russian seven-string guitar * Walter Sylvester (1867–1944), UK – the "Sylvester", for safely removing pit props * Vladimir Syromyatnikov (1933–2006), Russia – Androgynous Peripheral Attach System and other spacecraft docking mechanisms * Simon Sze (born 1936), Taiwan/U.S., together with Dawon Kahng (1931–1992), South Korea – Floating-gate MOSFET * Leó Szilárd (1898–1964), Hungary/U.S. – co-developed the atomic bomb, patented the
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from n ...
, catalyst of the Manhattan Project


T

* Muhammad Salih Tahtawi (''fl.''1659–1660), Mughal Empire, Mughal India – seamless globe and celestial globe * Gyula Takátsy (1914–1980), Hungary – first Microtiter plate * Esther Takeuchi (born 1953) – holds more than 150 US-patents, the largest number for any woman in the United States * Igor Tamm (1895–1971), Russia – co-developer of tokamak * Ching W. Tang (born 1947), Hong Kong/U.S., together with Steven Van Slyke, U.S. – OLED * Mardi bin Ali al-Tarsusi (c. 1187), Middle East – counterweight trebuchet, mangonel * Gustav Tauschek (1899–1945), Austria – Drum memory * Kenyon Taylor (1908–1986), U.S. – Flip-disc display * Bernard Tellegen (1900–1990), Netherlands – pentode * Edward Teller (1908–2003), Hungary – hydrogen bomb * Eli Terry (1772–1852) * Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), Serbia – induction motor, high-voltage / high-frequency power experiments, the transmission of electrical power * Léon Theremin (1896–1993), Russia – theremin, Interlaced video, interlace, burglar alarm, terpsitone, Rhythmicon (first drum machine), The Thing (listening device) * Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (1785–1870), France – Arithmometer * Elihu Thomson (1853–1937), UK, U.S. – Prolific inventor, Arc lamp and many others * William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824–1907), UK – Kelvin absolute temperature scale * Eric Tigerstedt (1887–1925), Finland – Sound-on-film, triode vacuum tube * Kálmán Tihanyi (1897–1947), Hungary – co-inventor of cathode ray tube and iconoscope * Mikhail Tikhonravov (1900–1974), Russia – co-developer of Sputnik 1 (the first artificial satellite) together with Sergey Korolyov, Korolyov and Mstislav Keldysh, Keldysh, designer of further Sputniks * Gavriil Adrianovich Tikhov (1875–1960), Russia – feathering spectrograph * Benjamin Chew Tilghman (1821–1897), U.S. – sandblasting * Fedor Tokarev (1871–1968), Russia – TT-33 semiautomatic handgun and SVT-40 self-loading rifle * Ray Tomlinson (1941–2016), U.S. – First inter-computer email * Evangelista Torricelli (1608–1647), Italy – barometer * Alfred Traeger (1895–1980), Australia – Pedal radio#Pedal-powered transmitter, Pedal radio * Richard Trevithick (1771–1833), UK – high-pressure steam engine, first full-scale steam locomotive * Franc Trkman (1903–1978), Slovenia – electrical switches, accessories for opening windows * Hans Tropsch (1889–1935), together with
Franz Joseph Emil Fischer Franz Joseph Emil Fischer (19 March 1877 in Freiburg im Breisgau – 1 December 1947 in Munich) was a German chemist. He was the founder and first director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research. He is known for the discovery of ...
(1877–1947), Germany –
Fischer–Tropsch process The Fischer–Tropsch process is a collection of chemical reactions that converts a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, known as syngas, into liquid hydrocarbons. These reactions occur in the presence of metal catalysts, typically at temperat ...
(refinery process) * Yuri Trutnev (scientist), Yuri Trutnev (1927–2021), Russia – co-developer of the Tsar Bomb * Roger Y. Tsien (1952–2016), together with Osamu Shimomura (1928–2018) and Martin Chalfie (born 1947), U.S. – Discovery and development of Green fluorescent protein * Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935), Russia – spaceflight * Mikhail Tsvet (1872–1919), Russia – chromatography (specifically adsorption chromatography, the first chromatography method) * Alexei Tupolev (1925–2001), Russia – the Tupolev Tu-144 (first supersonic passenger jet) * Andrei Tupolev (1888–1972), Russia – turboprop powered long-range airliner (Tupolev Tu-114), turboprop strategic bomber (Tupolev Tu-95) * Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (1201–1274), Persia/ Iran – observatory, Tusi-couple * Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī (1135–1213), Persia/ Iran – linear
astrolabe An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستاره‌یاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...
* Ralph Hart Tweddell (1843–1895), England – portable hydraulic riveter


U

* Shintaro Uda (1869–1976), together with Hidetsugu Yagi (1886–1976), Japan – Yagi–Uda antenna– * Lewis Urry (1927–2004), Canada – long-lasting alkaline battery * Tomislav Uzelac, Croatia – first successful MP3 player, AMP


V

* Ira Van Gieson (1866–1913), U.S. – Van Gieson's stain (histology) * Theophilus Van Kannel (1841–1919), U.S. – revolving door (1888) * Vladimir Veksler (1907–1966), Russia – synchrophasotron, co-inventor of synchrotron * John Venn (1834–1923), UK – Venn diagram (1881) * Auguste Victor Louis Verneuil (1856–1913), France – Verneuil process (crystal growth) * Pierre Vernier (1580–1637), France – Vernier scale (1631) * Lucien Vidi (1805–1866), France – Barograph * Edgar Villchur (1917–2011), U.S. – Acoustic suspension (loudspeaker) * Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (1895–1973), Finland – AIV fodder * Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), Italy – Battery (electricity), battery, see also Voltaic pile * Bernard Vonnegut (1914–1997), together with Cloud seeding, Henry Chessin, and Cloud seeding, Richard E. Passarelli Jr., U.S. – Cloud seeding by silver iodide * Ivan Vučetić (1858–1925), Croatia – method of fingerprint classification


W

* Ruth Graves Wakefield (1903–1977), U.S. – chocolate chip cookie * Paul Walden (1863–1957), Latvia/Russia/Germany – Walden inversion, Ethylammonium nitrate (the first room temperature ionic liquid) * Jimmy Wales (born 1966), together with Larry Sanger, U.S. – Wikipedia * Adam Walker (inventor), Adam Walker (1730–1821), UK – eidouranion * Madam C.J. Walker (1867–1919), U.S. – beauty and hair products for African American women * Barnes Wallis (1887–1979), UK – bouncing bomb * Frederick Walton (c. 1834–1928), UK – Linoleum * Maurice Ward (1933–2011), UK – Starlite * Aldred Scott Warthin (1866–1931), together with Allen Chronister Starry (1890–1973), U.S. – Warthin–Starry stain (histology) * Robert Watson-Watt (1892–1973), Scotland – microwave radar * James Watt (1736–1819), Scotland – improved Steam engine * Thomas Wedgwood (1771–1805), Thomas Wedgwood (1771–1805), UK – first (not permanent) photograph * Carl Auer von Welsbach (1858–1929), Austria – Gas mantle, ferrocerium * Jonas Wenström (1855–1893), Sweden – Three-phase electric power, three-phase electrical power * George Westinghouse (1846–1914), U.S. – Air brake (rail) * Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875), UK – concertina, stereoscope, microphone, Playfair cipher, pseudoscope, Dynamo#Siemens and Wheatstone dynamo (1867), dynamo * Richard T. Whitcomb (1921–2009), U.S. – Supercritical airfoil, Wingtip device, Winglet * Cornelius Whitehouse (1796–1883), UK – method of manufacturing tubes cheaply and accurately * Eli Whitney (1765–1825), U.S. – the cotton gin * Frank Whittle (1907–1996), UK – co-inventor of the jet engine * Otto Wichterle (1913–1989), Czechoslovakia – soft contact lens * Norman Wilkinson (artist), Norman Wilkinson (1878–1971), UK – Dazzle camouflage * Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869–1959), UK – Cloud chamber * Paul Winchell (1922–2005), U.S. – the artificial heart * Sergei Winogradsky (1856–1953), Russia / USSR – Winogradsky column for culturing microorganisms * Niklaus Wirth (born 1934), Switzerland – Pascal (programming language) * A. Baldwin Wood (1879–1956), U.S. – high volume pump * Norman Joseph Woodland (1921–2012), together with Bernard Silver (1924–1963), U.S. – Barcode * Granville Woods (1856–1910), U.S. – the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph * Steve Wozniak (born 1950), U.S. – Apple I & Apple II, II computers, early Apple Macintosh, Macintosh concepts, CL 9, CL 9 CORE universal remote and other devices and applications. * James Homer Wright (1869–1928), U.S. – Wright's stain (histology) * Wright brothers, Orville (1871–1948) and Wilbur (1867–1912) – U.S. – Fixed-wing aircraft, powered airplane * Wu Yulu, Chinese farmer and inventor of home-made robots * Adam Wybe (1584-1653), Dutch - inventor of the cable car on multiple supports * Arthur Wynne (1871–1945), UK – creator of crossword puzzle


X

* Yi Xing (683–727), China – Astronomical clock


Y

* Pavel Yablochkov (1847–1894), Russia – Yablochkov candle (first commercially viable electric carbon arc lamp) * Hidetsugu Yagi (1886–1976), together with Shintaro Uda (1896–1976), Japan – Yagi–Uda antenna * Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Alexander Yakovlev (1906–1989), Russia – Yakovlev, Yak-series aircraft, including Yakovlev Yak-40 (the first regional jet) * Linus Yale Jr. (1821–1868), U.S. – cylinder lock * Linus Yale Sr. (1797–1858), U.S. – pin tumbler lock * Shunpei Yamazaki (born 1942), Japan – patents in computer science and solid-state physics, see List of prolific inventors * Gazi Yaşargil (born 1925), Turkey – Microneurosurgery * Ryōichi Yazu (1878–1908), Japan – Ryōichi Yazu, Yazu Arithmometer * Gunpei Yokoi (1941–1997), Japan – Game Boy * Arthur M. Young (1905–1995), U.S. – the Bell Helicopter * Vladimir Yourkevich (1885–1964), Russia/France/U.S. – ship hull (watercraft), hull design * Tu Youyou (born 1930), China – Artemisinin * Sergei Yudin (surgeon), Sergei Yudin (1891–1954), Russia – cadaveric blood transfusion and other medical operations * Muhammad Yunus (born 1940), Bangladesh – microcredit, microfinance * Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd al-Haqq, Abu Yusuf Yaqub (c. 1274), Morocco/Al-Andalus, Spain – Siege engine, siege cannon * A. Albert Yuzpe, Abraham Albert Yuzpe (born 1938), U.S. – Yuzpe regimen (= form of Emergency contraception)


Z

* Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis) (936–1013), Al-Andalus, Islamic Spain – catgut surgical suture, various surgical instruments and dental devices * Frank Zamboni (1901–1988), U.S. – Ice resurfacer * Giuseppe Zamboni (1776–1846), Italy – Zamboni pile (early battery) * L. L. Zamenhof, Ludwik Łazarz Zamenhof (1859–1917), Russia/Poland – Esperanto * Walter Zapp (1905–2003), Latvia/Estonia/Germany – Minox (subminiature camera) * Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Arzachel) (1028–1087), Al-Andalus, Islamic Spain – almanac, equatorium, universal
astrolabe An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستاره‌یاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...
* Yevgeny Zavoisky (1907–1976), Russia – EPR spectroscopy, co-developer of NMR spectroscopy * Nikolay Zelinsky (1861–1953), Russia – the first effective filtering coal gas mask in the world * Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838–1917), Germany – Zeppelin * Frits Zernike (1888–1966), The Netherlands – Phase contrast microscopy, Phase contrast microscope * Tang Zhongming (1897–1980), China – internal combustion engine powered by charcoal *
Jian Zhou Jian Zhou (; 1957 – March 1999) was a Chinese virologist and cancer researcher, who with fellow researcher Ian Frazer, invented Gardasil and Cervarix, the vaccines for stimulating human immunological resistance to the cervical cancer-inducin ...
(1957–1999), together with Ian Hector Frazer (1953–), China/U.S. –
HPV vaccine Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines are vaccines that prevent infection by certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV). Available HPV vaccines protect against either two, four, or nine types of HPV. All HPV vaccines protect against at least HP ...
against
cervical cancer Cervical cancer is a cancer arising from the cervix. It is due to the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Early on, typically no symptoms are seen. Later symptoms may include abnormal va ...
* Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky, Nikolai Zhukovsky (1847–1921), Russia – an early wind tunnel, co-developer of the Tsar Tank * Karl Ziegler (1898–1973), together with Giulio Natta (1903–1979), Germany/Italy – Ziegler–Natta catalyst * Franz Ziehl (1857–1926), together with Friedrich Neelsen (1854–1898), Germany – Ziehl–Neelsen stain (histology) * Konrad Zuse (1910–1995), Germany – invented the first programmable general-purpose computer (Z1 (computer), Z1, Z2 (computer), Z2, Z3 (computer), Z3, Z4 (computer), Z4) * Vasily Zvyozdochkin (1876–1956), Russia – matryoshka doll (together with Sergey Malyutin) * Vladimir Zworykin (1889–1982), Russia/U.S. – Iconoscope, kinescope.


See also

* Creativity techniques * List of emerging technologies * List of prolific inventors * Ten Japanese Great Inventors * The heroic theory of invention and scientific development * Timeline of historic inventions * List of African-American inventors and scientists


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inventors Inventors, * Lists of inventors, sv:Alfabetisk lista över svenska uppfinnare och vetenskapsmän