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About This Quiz
When was the last time you thought about how some of your favorite creature comforts came to be? Here is a way for you to identify the inventors who make life so much easier. How many masterminds can you identify by name? We've filtered geniuses and their wonderful developments from around the world and from different moments in history.
Many folks don't stop to think how hard on the human frame it would be cut a solid block of cheese with even a sharp knife. Thanks to Thor Bjorklund, humans have not had that problem for many years. The Lillehammer, Norway native discovered a brilliant way to slice hard-to-cut cheese with ease. A special nod of appreciation also is due to Eadweard Muybridge whose countless hours of photographic study paid off hugely. The English photographer's work greatly contributed to the development of modern-day motion picture film. And the food industry would not be what it is today if it were not for the intellectuals responsible for canned food storage (Nicolas Appert) and the epic flash-freezing method (Clarence Birdseye).
Have you ever wanted to be an innovation whiz? Discover a human need, then answer the call. It's as simple as that! To set your gadget wizardry off to a good start, see how many inventors you can name now!
Augustus Siebe
Samuel W. Alderson
Samuel W. Alderson created Alderson Research Labs in 1952 after working at his father's sheet-metal company and assorted military technology firms. Crash test dummies are anthropomorphic creations that were first used by NASA and the U.S. military to test parachutes and ejection seats.
Ching W. Tang
Jimmy Wales
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Ruth Handler
Ruth Handler changed the way little girls perceived toy dolls. Until her high-fashion Barbie creation in 1950, toy marketers assumed that baby dolls better socialized young girls for motherhood and adulthood.
Arthur M. Young
Walter Zapp
Lewis Urry
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Kenyon Taylor
Igor Tamm
Karl Benz
German-born son of an engine driver Karl Benz successfully designed industrial engines while wanting a "motor carriage." In 1886, Benz indexed a patent called DRP 37435 for a three-wheeler with a four-stroke engine, which was powered by a gas engine cooled by water.
Oliver Smithies
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Simon Stevin
Adolphe Sax
Dennis Ritchie
Daisuke Inoue
Daisuke Inoue was awarded the Ig Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for the invention. When given the "honor," the awards committee remarked that Inoue deserved the prize for "providing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other."
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Joseph Plateau
Calvin Quate
Rostislav Alexeyev
The ekranoplan is more fuel efficient and fast than an aircraft of the same size that can haul similar cargo. Ekranoplan uses ground-effect technology which increases in lift with flight at low levels resulting from air compression between a wing and the ground or water directly beneath.
George Pullman
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Whitcomb Judson
Whitcomb Judson pioneered the "Clasp Locker," which was a complex hook-end-eye device that was originally designed to fasten shoes and replace boot laces. The "Clasp Locker" was first presented at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.
Eugene Polley
Elisha Otis
Alfred Nobel
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Jozef Murgas
Friedrich Bergius
In 1931, Friedrich Bergius won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. In a January 1929 interview published in "Nation's Business" magazine, the fuel technologist is quoted as saying: "In a year from now about 20 percent of all the gasoline consumed in Germany will be made by liquefying coal."
Richard F. Lyon
Ernest Orlando Lawrence
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Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes pioneered the liquefaction of helium in 1908 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in 1913. Kamerlingh Onnes was born on September 21, 1853 in Groningen.
Ken Kutaragi
Bob Kahn
Steve Jobs
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Jimmy Hotz
Andrew Kay
In 1953, Andrew Kay started a company called Non-Linear Systems and in the early '80s produced the cheap Kaypro 2 personal computer which was a huge success. With his son David, Kay created the Kaypro all-in-one device to offer a compact computer alternative to computers plagued with cables.
Lasse Hessel
Rudolf Hell
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Giulio Natta
Emile Berliner
In 1870 at age 19, Emile Berliner immigrated to America from Germany. Berliner pioneered a flat disk that reproduced music and the human voice more precisely, eventually becoming the basis for the phonograph. His company, the Berliner Gramophone Company, opened the first recording studio.
Elisha Otis
William Painter
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Larry Page
Alec Reeves
Randi Altschul
Randi Altschul also invented the Tonka Turbo Fist, which is a glove that allows you to maneuver a remote-controlled toy car by moving your hand. Her first creation was a "Miami Vice" board game.
Francis Rogallo
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Boris Rosing
Larry Sanger
Rene T. H. Laennec
Dubbed the "father of the stethoscope," Rene T. H. Laennec invented the concept for the medical device in 1816 by rolling up a sheet of paper into a tube shape to amplify sound. Laennec held one end of the tube to his ear and the other to the chest of a woman who showed symptoms of a diseased heart.
Ibn Sina
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John Goffe Rand
Charles Macintosh
Scottish inventor and chemist Charles Macintosh developed the Mackintosh waterproof raincoat after discovering how to convert rubber into a waterproof fabric in 1823. Macintosh started his career as a store clerk.
Henry Perky
Lucien Olivier
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Ted Nelson
Anthony Michell
Tim Berners-Lee
In January 2004, the Queen of England named inventor Tim Berners-Lee a Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire in recognition of his pioneering work. Berners-Lee is a British computer scientist who developed the first server software and Web browser in 1990.
Ed Lowe
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William Justin Kroll
Hippolyte Mege-Mouries
In the late 1800s, when Emperor Napoleon III of France promised to award anyone who could invent a cheap butter substitute for the lower classes, Hippolyte Mege-Mouries answered the call and won. He created margarine from skim milk and fat rendered from beef.
Karl Jatho
Ub Iwerks
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Rowland Hill
Brent Hall
Mary Anderson
Drivers had to clean their windshields by hand when the first windshields came on the driving scene in 1904. Anderson patented the windshield wiper design for a "window cleaning device" after coasting on street cars in snow.
John Fowler
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Brendan Eich
Charles Dow
Clarence Birdseye
In 1886, Clarence Birdseye was born in Brooklyn, New York. Birdseye did not complete college but he became a biologist and naturalist by keeping journals of his wildlife observations.
Jacques Cousteau
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Jules Montenier
In 1940, chemist Jules Montenier registered a patent for an antiperspirant that did not damage clothes or wound the skin. Montenier managed to tame the harmful acidic effects of aluminum chloride.
Martin Cooper
Henry Burden
James Watt
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Frank Whittle
Laszlo Biro
Born in Budapest in 1899, Laszlo Biro developed a fascination for pens when he observed how hard it was to write with a nib-type fountain pen on newsprint paper. Biro became a newspaper journalist after completing his formal education. He sold his first patented pens circa 1943.
Gunpei Carter
Frank Nelson
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Richard Drew
William Crookes
Robert Koch
Momofuko Ando
Japanese inventor Momofuko Ando created instant noodles as a postwar product, but it eventually became a staple food for U.S. college students for many years. In 1999, the Momofuko Ando Instant Ramen Museum opened in Ikeda City in western Japan to honor Ando's inventions.
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Blaise Pascal
John Goffe Rand
Thor Bjorklund
Born in Lillehammer, Norway, Thor Bjorklund was a cabinetmaker by trade. Bjorklund's hand cheese slicer quickly became one of the country's leading manufactured exports. Lillehammer is also renowned for producing ski wax and fishhooks.
Bi Sheng
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Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge developed the fundamental science behind motion picture technology while conducting photographic analyses of human and animal movement during the late nineteenth century. Muybridge was a photographer by trade.
Samuel Colt
Hugh Bradner
Arturo Caprotti
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Nicolas Appert
French manufacturer, chef and inventor Nicolas Appert committed his life to the appertization method, which sterilizes food so that no noticeable microorganisms can be detected. Appert's primary focus was to create food preservation solutions for seamen.
Jacob Davis
Ole Evinrude
Dennis Gabor
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Charles Goodyear
John Hadley
Alan Dower Blumlein
On December 14, 1931, Alan Dower Blumlein registered a patent for what he termed "stereo," which was an audio system with two channels. Blumlein's invention was noted as having a "shuffling" circuit to nurture directional sound and an orthogonal-sized "Blumlein Pair" of velocity microphones.
Karl Jatho
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Paul C. Fisher
Sidney N. Rosenthal
Sidney Rosenthal is credited for having created the felt-tip pen, but patent disputes followed by business failures and health complications shrouded his legacy. Rosenthal manufactured the ball-point pen alternative in 1952 from his Queens, New York company called Speedry Chemical Products.
Eric Fossum
Alberto Gianni
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Robert Goddard
Tom Parry Jones
John Vincent Atanasoff
Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff worked at Iowa State in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He and Clifford Berry, a graduate student, invented the digital computing device named the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. The device could only solve a certain kind of math problem.
Marcel Kiepach
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Edward Calahan
In 1867, Edward Calahan developed the first stock ticker, which Thomas Edison modified in 1870 by increasing its speed. Calahan was a telegraph operator who reconfigured a telegraph machine to list financial data.
Hedy Lamarr
Hiram Maxim
Elon Musk
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Ransom Eli Olds
General Motors organization, the first mass producer of gasoline cars, named the Oldsmobile car for Ransom Eli Olds who manufactured gasoline engines. Oldsmobile's Curved Dash model inspired the first assembly line in 1901.
David Boggs
John Barber
Hon Lik
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Willard Frank Libby
Ole Kirk Christiansen
Ole Kirk Christiansen conceived the idea for the Lego toy system in 1934. The name of the toy and company combines the Danish words "leg" and "godt" which translate to "play well" in English.
Sylvester Marsh
John von Neumann
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Paul Offit
Ernst Ruska
Ralph H. Baer
Ralph H. Baer invented the video game console in 1966 from his television engineering training and U.S. Army experience. When Baer died at age 92 in 2014, he held more than 150 foreign and U.S. patents.
Thomas Parker
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Dudley Allen Buck
Leonardo da Vinci
Alexey Pajitnov
Soviet computer programmer and mathematician Alexey Pajitnov first produced a more generic version of the game as free software. Spectrum HoloByte, an American game software company in Alameda, California, later licensed a more refined version of Tetris from Pajitnov.
Fe del Mundo
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Ray Dolby
John Ericsson
Josephine Garis-Cochrane
Illinois socialite Josephine Garis-Cochrane observed that the ordinary hand washing her servants administered to her antique plates caused the dishes to crack and chip. In 1886, Cochrane pioneered a non-mechanical technique that is the foundation technology for today's dishwashers.
Bran Ferren
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Artur Fischer
Trevor Baylis
British inventor Trevor Baylis conceived his wind-up radio idea while watching a documentary about AIDS in Africa. Baylis noticed that people on the continent were not able to listen to life-saving information on their radios for more than half an hour a day because of the high cost of batteries.
Lori Greiner
Charles Hall
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Stephen Perry
Inventor Stephen Perry registered the patent for the rubber band in 1845. Natives of South and Central America had already been using milk from the rubber tree to produce bottles, shoes and clothing.
Karl Jatho
Carl D. Keith
Norm Larsen
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Lin Yutang
Robert Metcalfe
C. W. Fuller
Corradino D'Ascanio
Corradino D'Ascanio's aeronautical experience and his aversion to motorcycles inspired his Vespa creation. Of motorcycles, the inventor loathed the grimy chain drive, and he believed that the machines were uncomfortable to operate.
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Elmer R. Gates
Joseph Henry
Ruth Benerito
Dr. Ruth Benerito was a government chemist who oversaw the team that aided the development of the wrinkle-free fabric. Benerito authored over 200 publications and owned 55 patents prior to her death in October 2013.
Lewis Latimer
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Melitta Bentz
Founder of coffee company Melitta North America, Melitta Bentz invented pour-over coffee as well as the two-part filtration system used for drip coffee. Bentz's frustration over bitter cups of coffee filled with coffee grounds is what inspired her to develop pour-over coffee.
Karl Malone
Julio Palmaz
Erno Rubik
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Alexander Sablukov
Guy Severin
George Eastman
Sir James Dewar
Before the advent of quantum mechanics, Sir James Dewar tested chemical principles. Dewar is most famous for his gas liquefaction discoveries and his work that has led to cryogenics research.
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Hub van Doorne
Norman Holter
Federico Faggin
Italian inventor Federico Faggin was born in Vicenza in 1941. He ventured off to America in 1968 to the region known today as Silicon Valley to work for Fairchild Semiconductor. His MOS silicon gate technology paved the way for the microprocessor he helped create for Intel company in the '70s.
Edwin H. Land
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Dr. John Heysham Gibbon, Jr.
Dr. John H. Gibbon was inspired to develop the heart and lung machine from his experience with a patient in 1930. Gibbon's device would replace the functions of a patient's heart and lungs so that repairs could be made to the interior of the heart or to major vessels.
Elijah McCoy
Ludvig Nobel
Thomas Parker
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You Got:
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