YEAR
GREATEST INVENTION
1901
  • The zepplin is invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.
  • Benjamin Holt invents the first tractor.
1902
  • King Camp Gillette invents the double edged safety razor.
  • The first radio receiver successfully receives a radio transmission.
1903
  • Willis Carrier invents the air conditioner.
  • French physicist George Claude invents neon light.
  • The lie detector or polygraph machine is invented by James Mackenzie.
1904
  • Edward Binney and Harold Smith co-invent crayons.
  • Bottle-making machinery is invented by Michael J. Owens.
  • The Wright brothers invent the first gas motored and manned airplane.
1905
  • Teabags are invented by Thomas Suillivan.
1906
  • Mary Anderson invents windshield wipers.
1907
  • William Kellogg invents cornflakes.
  • Lewis Nixon invents sonar.
  • Lee Deforest invents electronic amplifying tube (triode).
1908
  • Leo Baekeland invents the first synthetic plastic called Bakelite.
  • Color photography is invented by Auguste & Louis Lumiere.
1909
  • The gyrocompass is invented by Elmer A. Sperry.
1910
  • Instant coffee is invented by G. Washington.
1911
  • Thomas Edison demonstrates the first talking motion picture.
1912
  • Charles Franklin Kettering invents the first automobile electrical ignition system.
1913
  • Motorized movie cameras are invented, replacing hand cranks.
  • The first tank is patented by Australian inventor De La Mole.
1914
  • The crossword puzzle is invented by Arthur Wynne.
  • The Merck Chemical Company patented, what is now know as ecstasy.
  • Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra.
1915
  • Garrett A. Morgan invents the gas mask.
1916
  • Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor co-invent Pyrex, in New York City.
1917
  • Radios tuners are invented, for receiving different stations.
  • Stainless steel is invented.
1918
  • Gideon Sundback patents the modern zipper (not the first zipper).
1919
  • The superheterodyne radio circuit is invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong. Today every radio or television set uses this invention.
1920
  • The pop-up toaster is invented by Charles Strite.
  • Shortwave radio is invented.
  • The flip-flop circuit is invented.
  • The arc welder is invented.
1921
  • The tommy-gun is patented by John T Thompson.
  • The band-Aid (pronounced 'ban-'dAd) is invented by Earle Dickson.
1922
  • Artificial life begins -- the first robot is built.
1923
  • Insulin is invented by Sir Frederick Grant Banting.
  • The first 3-D movie (spectacles with one red and one green lens) is released.
1924
  • Garrett A. Morgan invents the traffic signal.
  • The television iconoscope (cathode-ray tube) is invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin.
1925
  • The dynamic loudspeaker is invented by inventors Rice and Kellogg.
  • Notebooks with spiral bindings are invented.
1926
  • The mechanical television is invented by John Logie Baird, a precursor to the modern television.
1927
  • Robert H. Goddard invents liquid-fueled rockets.
1928
  • Eduard Haas III invents PEZ candy.
  • JWA Morrison invents the first quartz crystal watch.
  • Philo Taylor Farnsworth invents a complete electronic TV system.
  • Technicolor is invented.
1929
  • Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
  • Bubble gum is invented by Walter E. Diemer.
1930
  • American, Paul Galvin invents the car radio.
  • The Yo-Yo is invented.
1931
  • Scotch tape is patented by 3M engineer, Richard G. Drew.
  • The frozen food process is patented by Clarence Birdseye.
  • Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invent neoprene.
1932
  • Harold Edgerton invents the electronic flash for cameras.
  • Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope.
1933
  • Polaroid photography is invented by Edwin Herbert Land.
  • The zoom lens and the light meter are invented.
  • Carl C. Magee invents the first parking meter.
1934
  • Frequency modulation (FM radio) is invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong.
  • Stereo records are invented.
  • The drive-in movie theater prototype is built by Richard M. Hollingshead, in his driveway.
1935
  • Englishmen, Percy Shaw invents "catseyes" or roads reflectors.
  • Charles Darrow claims he invented the game Monopoly.
1936
  • Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents nylon ( polymer 6.6.)
  • The first canned beer is made.
1937
  • Bell Labs invents a voice recognition machine.
1938
  • Chester F. Carlson invents the photocopier.
  • The first jet engine is built.
1939
  • The ballpoint pen is invented by Ladislo Biro.
  • Strobe lighting is invented.
  • Roy J. Plunkett, invents tetrafluoroethylene polymers or Teflon.
1940
  • Igor Sikorsky invents the first successful helicopter.
  • The electron microscope is invented.
1941
  • Dr William Reich invents the orgone accumulator.
1942
  • Konrad Zuse's Z3 is the first computer controlled by software.
  • Aerosol spray cans are invented by American inventors, Lyle David Goodloe and W.N. Sullivan.
  • Enrico Fermi invents the neutronic reactor.
1943
  • John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry build the first electronic digital computer.
1944
  • Synthetic rubber is invented.
1955
  • The kidney dialysis machine is invented by Willem Kolff.
  • Synthetic cortisone is invented by Percy Lavon Julian.
1946
  • Vannevar Bush proposes hypertext.
1947
  • The microwave oven is invented by Percy Spencer.
1948
  • British/Hungarian scientist Dennis Gabor developed the theory of holography.
  • Mobile phones are first invented.
  • Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley invent the transistor.
1949
  • The FrisbeeŽ is invented by Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni.
  • VelcroŽ is invented by George de Mestral.
1950
  • Cake mix is invented.



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Nah Wee Peng
Blk 699 Hougang Street 52 #01-13 Singapore 530966.
Telephone: 3862043. Fax: 7522132
E-mail address: weepeng@singnet.com.sg