Inventors and their inventions

· Thomas Adams, inventor of chewing gum

· Mary Anderson, inventor of car windshield wipers

· Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone

· Edward Binney, co-inventor of Crayola crayons

· Clarence Birdseye, inventor of commercial frozen food

· Joseph-Armand Bombardier, inventor of the snowmobile

· Willis Carrier, inventor of air conditioning

· Josephine Garis Cochrane, inventor of the dishwasher

· George de Mestral, inventor of Velcro

· Rudolph Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine

· Marion Donovon, inventor of the disposable diaper

· Richard Drew, inventor of Scotch tape

· Thomas Alva Edison, inventor of the phonograph, lightbulb and motion pictures

· Douglas C. Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse

· Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of modern television

· Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the lightning rod, bifocal glasses, the Franklin stove and the odometer

· Art Fry, inventor of Post-It notes

· Gordon Gould, inventor of the laser

· Bette Nesmith Graham, inventor of Liquid Paper

· Arthur Granjean, inventor of the Etch-a-sketch

· Chester Greenwood, inventor of ear muffs

· Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll

· Richard M. Hollingshead, inventor of the drive-in theater

· Walter Hunt, inventor of the safety pin

· Thomas Jefferson, inventor of the swivel chair

· Lonnie Johnson, inventor of the Super Soaker

· Edwin Herbert Land, inventor of the Polaroid land instant photography camera

· Edward Lowe, inventor of Kitty Litter

· William G. Morgan, inventor of the game volleyball

· Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse code

· Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite

· Elisha G. Otis, inventor of the elevator brake

· Edwin Perkins, inventor of Kool-Aid

· James Russell, inventor of the CD (compact disc)

· Ralph Samuelson, inventor of waterskiing

· Arthur Sicard, inventor of the snowblower

· Igor Skorsky, inventor of helicopters

· Percy Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven

· Levi Strauss, inventor of blue jeans

· Ralph Teetor, inventor of cruise control

· Earl Silas Tupper, inventor of Tupperware

· Schuyler Wheeler, inventor of the electric fan

· Orville and Wilbur Wright, inventors of the airplane

· Gumpei Yokoi, inventor of the Game Boy

Thomas Adams, inventor of chewing gum

Adams Sons and Company was formed in 1876 by the glass merchant Thomas Adams (1818-1905) and his two sons. As a result of experiments in a warehouse of Front Street, Adams made chewing gum that had chicle as an ingredient, large quantities of which had been made available to him by General Antonio de Santa Anna of Mexico, who was in exile in Staten Island and at whose instigation Adams had tried to use the chicle to make rubber. Adams sold the gum with the slogan "Adams' New York Gum No. 1 -- Snapping and Stretching." The firm was the nation's most prosperous chewing gum company by the end of the century: it built a monopoly in 1899 by merging with the six largest and best-known chewing gum manufacturers in the United States and Canada, and achieved great success as the maker of Chiclets.

Mary Anderson, inventor of car windshield wipers

Mary Anderson was granted her first patent for a window cleaning device in November 1903. Her invention could clean snow, rain, or sleet from a windshield by using a handle inside the car.

Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone

In the 1870s, two inventors Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). Both men rushed their respective designs to the patent office within hours of each other, Alexander Graham Bell patented his telephone first. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won.

Edward Binney, co-inventor of Crayola crayons

Crayola brand crayons were the first kids crayons ever made, invented by cousins, Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith. The brand's first box of eight Crayola crayons made its debut in 1903. The crayons were sold for a nickel and the colors were black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green. The word Crayola was created by Alice Stead Binney (wife of Edwin Binney) who took the French words for chalk (craie) and oily (oleaginous) and combined them.

Clarence Birdseye, inventor of commercial frozen food

Birdseye invented, developed, and commercialized a method for quick-freezing food products in convenient packages and without altering the original taste.

Joseph-Armand Bombardier, inventor of the snowmobile

Bombardier's development in 1958 of the type of sport machine that we know today as a "snowmobile.

Willis Carrier, inventor of air conditioning

In 1902, only one year after Willis Haviland Carrier graduated from Cornell University with a Masters in Engineering, the first air (temperature and humidity) conditioning was in operation in Brooklyn.

Josephine Garis Cochrane, inventor of the dishwasher

In 1886, Josephine Cochran proclaimed in disgust, "If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I'll do it myself." And she did, Cochran invented the first dishwasher. Cochran had expected the public to welcome the new invention, unveiled at the 1893 World's Fair, but only the hotels and large restaurants were buying her ideas. It was not until the 1950s that dishwashers caught on with the general public.

George de Mestral, inventor of Velcro

By trial and error, he realized that nylon when sewn under infrared light, formed tough hooks for the burr side of the fastener. This finished the design, patented in 1955. The inventor formed Velcro Industries to manufacture his invention.

Rudolph Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine

In 1893, he published a paper describing an engine with combustion within a cylinder, the internal combustion engine. In 1894, he filed for a patent for his new invention, dubbed the diesel engine. Diesel was almost killed by his engine when it exploded - however, his engine was the first that proved that fuel could be ignited without a spark. He operated his first successful engine in 1897.

Marion Donovon, inventor of the disposable diaper

Marion Donovan was a young mother in the post-war baby boom era. She came from a family of inventors and inherited the inventing 'gene'. Unhappy with leaky, cloth diapers that had to be washed, she first invented the 'Boater', a plastic covering for cloth diapers. Donovan made her first Boater using a shower curtain. A year later she carried her ideas further. Using disposable absorbent material and combining it with her Boater design, Donovan created the first convenient disposable diaper. Manufacturers thought her product would be too expansive to produce. Donovan, left unable to sell or license her diaper patent, went into business for herself.

Richard Drew, inventor of Scotch tape

Scotch Tape was invented in 1930 by banjo playing 3M engineer Richard G. Drew.

Thomas Alva Edison, inventor of the phonograph, lightbulb and motion pictures

August 12, 1877, is the date popularly given for Thomas Alva Edison's completion of the model for the first phonograph. It is more likely, however, that work on the model was not finished until November or December of that year, since Edison did not file for the patent until December 24, 1877.

Douglas C. Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse

In 1964, the first prototype computer mouse was made to use with a graphical user interface (GUI), 'windows'. Engelbart received a patent for the wooden shell with two metal wheels (computer mouse) in 1970, describing it in the patent application as an "X-Y position indicator for a display system." "It was nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end," Engelbart revealed about his invention.

Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of modern television

In 1927, Farnsworth was the first inventor to transmit a television image comprised of 60 horizontal lines. The image transmitted was a dollar sign. Farnsworth developed the dissector tube, the basis of all current electronic televisions. He filed for his first television patent in 1927 (pat#1,773,980.)

Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the lightning rod, bifocal glasses, the Franklin stove and the odometer

Franklin's innovations include bifocal glasses and the iron furnace stove, a small contraption with a sliding door which burns wood on a grate, thus allowing people to cook food and heat their homes at the same time. Mid-eighteenth century scientists and inventors considered electricity to be Franklin's most remarkable area of investigation and discovery.

Art Fry, inventor of Post-It notes

In the early 1970s, Art Fry was in search of a bookmark for his church hymnal that would neither fall out nor damage the hymnal. Fry soon realized that his "bookmark" had other potential functions when he used it to leave a note on a work file, and co-workers kept dropping by, seeking "bookmarks" for their offices. This "bookmark" was a new way to communicate and to organize. 3M Corporation crafted the name Post-it® note for Fry’s bookmarks and began production in the late 70s for commercial use.

Gordon Gould, inventor of the laser

Gordon Gould was the first person to use the word "laser," and there is good reason to believe he made the first light laser. Gould was a doctoral student at Columbia University under Charles Townes, the inventor of the maser. Gould was inspired to build his optical laser starting in 1958. He failed to file for a patent his invention until 1959. As a result, Gould's patent was refused and his technolgy was exploited by others. In1977 Gould finally won his patent war and received his first patent for the laser.

Bette Nesmith Graham, inventor of Liquid Paper

It was originally called "mistake out" and was the invention of Bette Nesmith Graham, a secretary in Dallas and a single mother raising a son, Michael (The Monkees). Bette was an artist and use to handling paints and inks. She used her own kitchen blender to mix up her first batch of liquid paper, the substance used to cover up mistakes made on paper.

Arthur Granjean, inventor of the Etch-a-sketch

First marketed on July 12, 1960, the Etch A Sketch® was developed in the late 1950s by Frenchman, Arthur Granjean.

Chester Greenwood, inventor of ear muffs

After wrapping his head in a scarf that was too bulky and itchy, Chester Greenwood made two ear-shaped loops from wire and asked his grandmother to sew fur on them. He patented an improved model with a steel band that held them in place and with Greenwood’s Champion Ear Protectors, he established the Greenwood’s Ear Protector Factory.

Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll

The Barbie doll was invented in 1959 by Ruth Handler (co-founder of Mattel), whose own daughter was called Barbara.

Richard M. Hollingshead, inventor of the drive-in theater

The first patent for the Drive-In Theater (US Patent #1,909,537) was issued on May 16, 1933.

Walter Hunt, inventor of the safety pin

The safety pin was the invention of Walter Hunt, invented while Hunt was twisting a piece of wire, trying to think of something that would help him pay off a fifteen-dollar debt. On April 10, 1849, the safety pin was patented. Hunt thought little of his safety pin as an invention and soon sold the patent for four hundred dollars.

Thomas Jefferson, inventor of the swivel chair

Thomas Jefferson introduced an improved revolving Windsor chair to the United States after seeing it in Europe. Combining the Windsor chair with a writing arm and a leg rest in Monticello's joinery, Jefferson, according to his own definition of the invention, created a new piece of furniture.

Lonnie Johnson, inventor of the Super Soaker

The Super Soaker® was invented in 1988 under the original name of the "Power Drencher" by Lonnie Johnson, an aerospace engineer from Los Angeles, California.

Edwin Herbert Land, inventor of the Polaroid land instant photography camera

Polaroid photography was invented by Edwin Herbert Land. Land was the American inventor and physicist whose one-step process for developing and printing photographs created a revolution in photography--instant photography.

Edward Lowe, inventor of Kitty Litter

Mr. Lowe was a visionary entrepreneur who created a whole new product category with his invention of cat-box filler. He made the trademark "Kitty Litter®" part of American vocabulary.

William G. Morgan, inventor of the game volleyball

William Morgan invented volleyball in 1895 at the Holyoke, MA YMCA--a trophy is now named in his honor.

Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse code

While a professor of arts and design at New York University in 1835, Samuel Morse proved that signals could be transmitted by wire. He used pulses of current to deflect an electromagnet, which moved a marker to produce written codes on a strip of paper--the invention of Morse Code.

Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.

Elisha G. Otis, inventor of the elevator brake

In 1853, American inventor Elisha G. Otis demonstrated a freight elevator equipped with a safety device to prevent falling in case a supporting cable should break that increased public confidence in elevators.

Edwin Perkins, inventor of Kool-Aid

When his family moved to southwest Nebraska at the turn of the century, young Perkins experimented with home-made concoctions in his mother’s kitchen and created Kool-Aid® in 1927.

James Russell, inventor of the CD (compact disc)

James Russell invented the compact disc in 1965. James Russell was granted a total of 22 patents for various elements of his compact disc system.

Ralph Samuelson, inventor of waterskiing

Waterskiing came about in 1922 when Ralph Samuelson, an eighteen-year-old from Minnesota, proposed the idea that if you could ski on snow, then you could ski on water.

Arthur Sicard, inventor of the snowblower

Canadian inventor Arthur Sicard invented the snowblower in 1925.

Igor Skorsky, inventor of helicopters

One of aviation's greatest designers, Russian-born Igor Sikorsky, began work on helicopters as early as 1910. By 1940, Sikorsky's successful VS-300 had become the model for all modern single-rotor helicopters.

Percy Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven

The microwave oven was a by-product of another technology, because it was during a radar-related research project around 1946 that Dr. Percy Spencer invented the microwave oven.

Levi Strauss, inventor of blue jeans

In 1850 during the California gold rush, Levi Strauss, a 20-year-old Bavarian immigrant, left New York for San Francisco with a small supply of dry goods. Shortly after his arrival, a prospector wanted to know what he was selling. When Strauss told him he had rough canvas for tents and wagon covers, the prospector said, "You should have brought pants!" saying he couldn’t find a pair of pants strong enough to last. So Strauss had the canvas made into pants. Miners liked the pants, but complained that they tended to chafe. A substitution of a twilled cotton cloth from France called "serge de Nimes," became known as denim.

Ralph Teetor, inventor of cruise control

Ralph Teetor, a prolific (and blind) inventor, invented cruise control.

Earl Silas Tupper, inventor of Tupperware

Tupperware (plastic container with airtight lid) was invented by Earl Silas Tupper (1908-1983).

Schuyler Wheeler, inventor of the electric fan

In 1886 Schulyer Wheeler invented the electric fan, a principal method of home cooling until Willis Haviland Carrier, the father of air conditioning, designed the first scientific system to clean, circulate, and control the temperature and humidity of air in homes.

Orville and Wilbur Wright, inventors of the airplane

Orville and Wilbur Wright requested a patent application for a "flying machine" nine months before their successful flight in December 1903 (Orville wrote this in his diary).

Gumpei Yokoi, inventor of the Game Boy

Gumpei Yokoi was the creator of the Game Boy and Virtual Boy and worked on Famicom (and NES), the Metroid series, Game Boy Pocket and did extensive work on the system we know today as the Nintendo Entertainment System.

July 31, 2003

Denise A. Garofalo