FAMOUS INVENTIONS
105 paper Ts’ai Lun Chinese
1250 magnifying glass Roger Bacon British
1447 movable type Johann Gutenberg German
1590 2-lens microscope Zacharias Janssen Dutch
1608 telescope Hans Lippershey Dutch
1709 piano Bartolomeo Cristofori Italian
1714 mercury thermoemter Gabriel D. Fahrenheit German
1780 bifocal lenses for glasses Benjamin Franklin American
1785 parachute Jean Pierre Blanchard French
1795 modern pencil Nicolas Jacques Conté French
1800 electric battery Alessandro Volta Italian
1807 steamboat Robert Fulton American
1819 stethoscope René T.M.H. Laënnec French
1827 matches John Walker British
1829 steam locomotive George Stephenson British
1831 lawn mower Edwin Budding & John Ferrabee British
1834 refrigeration Jacob Perkins British
1837 telegraph Samuel F.B. Morse American
1842 anesthesia (ether) Crawford W. Long American
1845 rotary printing press Richard M. Hoe American
1846 sewing machine Elias Howe American
1851 cylinder (door) lock Linus Yale American
1852 elevator Elisha G. Otis American
1867 typewriter Christopher L. Sholes, Carlos Glidden & Samuel W. Soulé American
1876 telephone Alexander G. Bell American
1877 microphone Emile Berliner American
1877 phonograph Thomas A. Edison American
1879 first practical electric light bulb Thomas A. Edison American
1885 bicycle James Starley British
1885 motorcycle Gottlieb Daimler German
1886 dishwasher Josephine Cochran American
1888 ballpoint pen John Loud American
1888 portable camera George Eastman American
1891 escalator Jesse W. Reno American
1891 zipper Whitcomb L. Judson American
1892 automobile (gasoline) Charles E. Duryea & J. Frank Duryea American
1893 moving picture viewer Thomas A. Edison American
1894 motion picture projector Charles F. Jenkins American
1894 submarine Simon Lake American
1895 diesel engine Rudolf Diesel German
1895 X ray Wilhelm Roentgen German
1899 tape recorder Valdemar Poulsen Denmark
1901 washing machine Langmuir Fisher American
1903 propeller airplane Orville & Wilbur Wright American
1903 windshield wipers Mary Anderson American
1907 vacuum cleaner J. Murray Spangler American
1911 air conditioning Willis H. Carrier American
1913 modern radio receiver Reginald A. Fessenden American
1922 insulin Sir Frederick G. Banting Canada
1923 television* Vladimir K. Zworykin* American
1924 frozen packaged food Clarence Birdseye American
1926 rocket engine Robert H. Goddard American
1929 penicillin Alexander Fleming Scotish
1930 cyclotron (atom smasher) Ernest O. Lawrence American
1937 xerography copies Chester Carlson American
1939 helicopter Igor Sikorsky American
1939 jet airplane Hans von Ohain German
1942 electronic computer John V. Atanasoff & Clifford Berry American
1943 Aqua Lung Jacques-Yves Cousteau & Emile Gagnan French
1944 auto sequence computer Howard H. Aiken American
1947 microwave oven Percy L. Spencer American
1947 transistor William Shockley, Walter H. Brattain, & John Bardeen American
1948 Velcro Georges de Mestral Suisse
1953 bathyscaphe August Piccard French
1954 antibiotic for fungal diseases Rachel F. Brown & Elizabeth L. Hazen American
1955 fiber optics Narinder S. Kapany British
1955 polio vaccine Jonas E. Salk American
1963 audiocassette Phillips Corporation Dutch
1963 pop-top can Ermal C. Fraze American
1963 steel tennis racquet René Lacoste French
1965 word processor International Business Machines Corp. American
1969 cash machine (ATM) Don Wetzel American
1969 videotape cassette Sony Japan
1971 food processor Pierre Verdon French
1972 compact disc (CD) RCA American
1972 video game (Pong) Noland Bushnell American
1973 CAT scanner Godfrey N. Hounsfield British
1977 space shuttle NASA U.S
1979 cellular telephone Ericsson Company Sweden
1979 Walkman Sony Japanese
1980 Post-its 3M Company American
1980 Rollerblades Scott Olson American
1981 Polartec fabric Malden Mills American
1983 minivan Chrysler American
1987 electronic pocket calculator Sir Clive Sinclair British
1987 meningitis vaccine Connaught Lab American
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