Showing 26 - 50 of 79 results
J. Paul Hogan
High-Density Polyethylene and Polypropylene Plastics
Paul Hogan was working with Robert Banks at Phillips Petroleum in 1951 when they invented crystalline polypropylene and a breakthrough process for…
Joseph Muhler
Stannous Fluoride Toothpaste
During the early 1940s, when dentist and biochemist Joseph Muhler was an Indiana University undergraduate, he began studying fluoride and tooth decay…
Herbert M. Strong
Diamond Synthesis
Herbert Strong, along with Tracy Hall, Francis Bundy, and Robert Wentorf, synthesized diamonds as part of Project Superpressure, as announced by the…
Mary Florence Potts
Cold-Handle Sad Iron
Mary Florence Potts invented an improved sad iron, which was lighter and offered a cooler, more ergonomic handle. Beginning in the 1870s, it was…
John Ericsson
Screw Propeller
John Ericsson invented the ship propeller and incorporated the landmark device into his design for the Civil War ironclad the Monitor. Born in the…
Charles Jenkins
Motion Picture Projector
Charles Jenkins was an innovator of early cinema and one of the first inventors of television, though he used mechanical rather than electronic…
Nils I. Bohlin
Safety Belt
Nils Bohlin, while with Volvo, invented the three-point safety belt, a standard in the modern automobile. Early tests showed that the belt was…
Frank Whittle
Jet Engine
By 1929, Frank Whittle had conceptualized the turbojet engine. The 1930s, however, proved challenging as he sought financial support and interest…
David Crosthwait
Heating and Ventilation System Design
David Crosthwait was a pioneer in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) industry. He devoted his career, which included groundbreaking…
Andrew J. Moyer
Method for Production of Penicillin
Andrew J. Moyer's discoveries provided the foundation for the industrial production of penicillin. Born in Star City, Indiana, Moyer received his A.B…
William Seward Burroughs
Calculator
William Seward Burroughs invented the first practical adding and listing machine. Born in Rochester, New York, Burroughs began his career as a bank…
Graham J. Durant
Tagamet - Cimetidine
Graham John Durant, John Emmett, and Robin Ganellin led the SmithKline Beecham Corporation's research team that discovered the H2 receptor class of…
Thomas A. Watson
Improvements to the Telephone
Thomas Watson is best known for working as Alexander Graham Bell's assistant during the development of the telephone. It was Watson who heard the…
Marvin Caruthers
Chemical Synthesis of DNA
In the early 1980s, biochemist Marvin Caruthers and his team at the University of Colorado Boulder developed the methods for chemically synthesizing…
Howard Aiken
Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (Mark I)
With the Mark I calculator, Howard Aiken showed that a computer could provide high-powered, speedy mathematical solutions to many problems. Aiken…
Robert Wentorf, Jr.
Diamond Synthesis
Robert Wentorf, along with Tracy Hall, Francis Bundy, and Herbert Strong, synthesized diamonds as part of Project Superpressure, as announced by the…
Patsy O. Sherman
Scotchgard™ Textile Protector
Chemist Patsy Sherman and colleague Sam Smith were working at 3M Company when they created Scotchgard™. Scotchgard went on to become one of the most…
William Nebergall
Stannous Fluoride Toothpaste
Dentist and biochemist Joseph Muhler and inorganic chemist William Nebergall developed a cavity-preventing product using stannous fluoride, building…
Joseph Lechleider
DSL - Digital Subscriber Line
Although inventors such as Alexander Graham Bell and Samuel Morse had speculated that data other than voice information could be transmitted over…
Francis P. Bundy
Diamond Synthesis
Francis Bundy, along with Tracy Hall, Robert Wentorf, and Herbert Strong, synthesized diamonds as part of Project Superpressure, as announced by the…
Eli Terry
Clock
A native of East Windsor, Connecticut, Eli Terry had his start in the clock-making business in a series of apprenticeships where he manufactured both…
Gordon Gould
Optically Pumped Laser Amplifiers
Gordon Gould coined the word laser and patented optically pumped and discharge excited laser amplifiers now used in industrial, commercial, and…
Andrea Goldsmith
Adaptive Beamforming for Multi-Antenna Wi-Fi
Andrea Goldsmith created technical innovations including adaptive beamforming for multi-antenna Wi-Fi. Her work has shaped the performance of…
Donald B. Keck
Optical Fiber
Donald B. Keck worked with Robert Maurer and Peter Schultz at Corning Laboratories to create the first successful optical fiber in 1970. In the 1880s…
Frederic Eugene Ives
Color Photography
Frederic Ives was a pioneer of color and stereoscopic photography, and demonstrated a system of natural color photography at the 1885 Novelties…