UV Waterworks
Among Ashok Gadgil's many inventions is a water disinfection system, which can provide healthy drinking water to at-risk populations for about seven cents per person per year. Gadgil was born in Bombay, India, in 1950. He loved science as a ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Computer Games
In 1979, computer game innovator Roberta Williams was a housewife with two kids and no experience or particular interest in computers. Meanwhile, her husband, Ken, worked for a computer company on huge IBM mainframe machines. It was around that ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Prozac
Klaus K. Schmiegel helped to change the lives of millions of people around the world suffering from depression. His work in organic chemistry lead to the development of the widely successful antidepressant Prozac. Born in Chemitz, Germany on June ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
The plastic soda bottle
Nathaniel Wyeth's most famous invention, one of the most convenient and readily recyclable items available for sale today, is the plastic soda bottle. Nat Wyeth was born near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, into America's foremost family of artists: ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Magnetic Recording Tape
Marvin Camras (1916-1995) invented the magnetic tape recording method that underlies most electronic and digital media, including audio and video cassettes, floppy disks and credit card magnetic strips. Born in Chicago in 1916, Camras was known ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Robert D. Maurer, Donald B. Keck, and Peter C. Schultz
The Information Age would have stagnated without a medium and method for transmitting massive amounts of data across great distances. In 1970, a team of researchers at Corning Glass made such a system a reality, using fiberoptic wire---which can ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Prolific Female Inventors of the Industrial Era
The most prolific women inventors of the early industrial era in the U.S. are sometimes known by the complimentary, if patronizing, title of "Lady Edisons." Margaret Knight of Boston (1838-1914) is credited with about 90 inventions and 22 ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Edward Binney & Harold Smith
Young children express their creativity more than anything else with their box of crayons. This has been true for nearly a hundred years, and is largely due to the efforts of one American company. Edwin Binney and Harold Smith founded Binney & ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
WILLIAM P. LEAR (1902 - 1978)
From the 1930s to the 1960s, William Powell Lear earned over 100 patents for groundbreaking electronic devices in three industries, including the first practical automobile radio, the airplane radio-compass and autopilot, and the eight-track tape ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Internet Protocols (TCP/IP)
Within ten years of graduating from high school, Vinton Cerf had begun co-designing and -developing the protocols and structure of what became the Internet. After graduating from high school in Van Nuys, California, Cerf entered Stanford ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Gatorade
What drink could be more integral to the American athletic scene than Gatorade? The beverage that is present at virtually every football game, soccer match and road race was invented in 1965 by Dr. Robert Cade. Born in 1927 in Florida, Cade was ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Helicopter Innovations
For over 50 years, Charles H. Kaman has been a leading inventor and businessman in the helicopter industry. Kaman was born in 1919 and grew up in Washington, DC. He earned a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Catholic University, then went to ... [... more]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
