1. Augustus Siebe
   Samuel W. Alderson
2. Ching W. Tang
   Jimmy Wales

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.

1. Ruth Handler
   Arthur M. Young
2. Walter Zapp
   Lewis Urry

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.

1. Kenyon Taylor
   Igor Tamm
2. Karl Benz
   Oliver Smithies

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.

1. Simon Stevin
   Adolphe Sax
2. 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."

1. Joseph Plateau
   Calvin Quate
2. Rostislav Alexeyev
   George Pullman

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.

1. Whitcomb Judson
   Eugene Polley
2. Elisha Otis
   Alfred Nobel

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.

1. Jozef Murgas
   Friedrich Bergius
2. Richard F. Lyon
   Ernest Orlando Lawrence

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."

1. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
   Ken Kutaragi
2. Bob Kahn
   Steve Jobs

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.

1. Jimmy Hotz
   Andrew Kay
2. Lasse Hessel
   Rudolf Hell

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.

1. Giulio Natta
   Emile Berliner
2. Elisha Otis
   William Painter

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.

1. Larry Page
   Alec Reeves
2. Randi Altschul
   Francis Rogallo

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.

1. Boris Rosing
   Larry Sanger
2. Rene T. H. Laennec
   Ibn Sina

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.

1. John Goffe Rand
   Charles Macintosh
2. Henry Perky
   Lucien Olivier

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.

1. Ted Nelson
   Anthony Michell
2. Tim Berners-Lee
   Ed Lowe

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.

1. William Justin Kroll
   Hippolyte Mege-Mouries
2. Karl Jatho
   Ub Iwerks

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.

1. Rowland Hill
   Brent Hall
2. Mary Anderson
   John Fowler

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.

1. Brendan Eich
   Charles Dow
2. Clarence Birdseye
   Jacques Cousteau

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.

1. Jules Montenier
   Martin Cooper
2. Henry Burden
   James Watt

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.

1. Frank Whittle
   Laszlo Biro
2. Gunpei Carter
   Frank Nelson

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.

1. Richard Drew
   William Crookes
2. 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.

1. Blaise Pascal
   John Goffe Rand
2. Thor Bjorklund
   Bi Sheng

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.

1. Eadweard Muybridge
   Samuel Colt
2. Hugh Bradner
   Arturo Caprotti

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.

1. Nicolas Appert
   Jacob Davis
2. Ole Evinrude
   Dennis Gabor

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.

1. Charles Goodyear
   John Hadley
2. Alan Dower Blumlein
   Karl Jatho

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.

1. Paul C. Fisher
   Sidney N. Rosenthal
2. Eric Fossum
   Alberto Gianni

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.

1. Robert Goddard
   Tom Parry Jones
2. John Vincent Atanasoff
   Marcel Kiepach

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.

1. Edward Calahan
   Hedy Lamarr
2. Hiram Maxim
   Elon Musk

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.

1. Ransom Eli Olds
   David Boggs
2. John Barber
   Hon Lik

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.

1. Willard Frank Libby
   Ole Kirk Christiansen
2. Sylvester Marsh
   John von Neumann

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.

1. Paul Offit
   Ernst Ruska
2. Ralph H. Baer
   Thomas Parker

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.

1. Dudley Allen Buck
   Leonardo da Vinci
2. Alexey Pajitnov
   Fe del Mundo

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.

1. Ray Dolby
   John Ericsson
2. Josephine Garis-Cochrane
   Bran Ferren

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.

1. Artur Fischer
   Trevor Baylis
2. Lori Greiner
   Charles Hall

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.

1. Stephen Perry
   Karl Jatho
2. Carl D. Keith
   Norm Larsen

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.

1. Lin Yutang
   Robert Metcalfe
2. 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.

1. Elmer R. Gates
   Joseph Henry
2. Ruth Benerito
   Lewis Latimer

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.

1. Melitta Bentz
   Karl Malone
2. Julio Palmaz
   Erno Rubik

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.

1. Alexander Sablukov
   Guy Severin
2. 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.

1. Hub van Doorne
   Norman Holter
2. Federico Faggin
   Edwin H. Land

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.

1. Dr. John Heysham Gibbon, Jr.
   Elijah McCoy
2. Ludvig Nobel
   Thomas Parker

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.