Last Updated on October 4, 2021
There have been many outstanding inventors throughout history, but only a few can be recognized for their remarkable inventions that changed the world. This list includes some of the highly respected inventors behind major innovations. Read on to find out more about these famous and influential inventors.
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Table of Contents
Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790
Benjamin Franklin was known for being an iconic statesman and a Founding Father. But among his many other accomplishments was the invention of the lightning rod, the iron furnace stove or Franklin Stove, bifocal glasses, and the odometer.
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Thomas Edison 1847-1931
The first great invention developed by Thomas Edison was the tin foil phonograph. A prolific producer, Edison is also known for his work with light bulbs, electricity, film, and audio devices.
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Johannes Gutenberg 1394-1468
Johannes Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and inventor best known for the Gutenberg press, an innovative printing machine that used movable type.
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Alexander Graham Bell 1847-1922
In 1876 at the age of 29, Alexander Graham Bell invented his telephone. Among one of his first innovations after the telephone was the “photophone,” a device that enabled sound to be transmitted on a beam of light.
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George Washington Carver 1864-1943
George Washington Carver was an agricultural chemist who invented 300 uses for peanuts and hundreds of more uses for soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes. His contributions changed the history of agriculture in the South.
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Henry Ford 1863-1947
Henry Ford did not invent the automobile as many people mistakenly assume. But he did improve the assembly line for automobile manufacturing, received a patent for a transmission mechanism, and popularized the gas-powered car with the Model-T.
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John Logie Baird 1888-1946
John Logie Baird is remembered as the inventor of mechanical television (an earlier version of television). Baird also patented inventions related to radar and fiber optics.
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Nikola Tesla
Due to overwhelming public demand, we had to add Nikola Tesla to this list. Tesla was a genius and much of his work was stolen by other inventors. Tesla invented fluorescent lighting, the Tesla induction motor, and the Tesla coil. He developed the alternating current (AC) electrical supply system that included a motor and transformer, as well as three-phase electricity.
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Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee is an English engineer and computer scientist who is often credited with inventing the World Wide Web, a network that most people use to access the internet. He first described a proposal for such a system in 1989, but it wasn’t until August 1991 that the first website was published and online. The World Wide Web that Berners-Lee developed was comprised of the first web browser, server, and hypertext.
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Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs was best remembered as the charismatic co-founder of Apple Inc. Working with co-founder Steve Wozniak, Jobs introduced the Apple II, a popular mass-market personal computer that helped usher in a new era of personal computing. After being forced out of the company that he founded, Jobs returned in 1997 and assembled the team of designers, programmers, and engineers responsible for the groundbreaking iPhone, iPad, and many other innovations.