INVENTIONS A-Z

Invention	Inventor	Year	Patent No.
A
Alternating Current Calculations	Charles Proteus Steinmetz	1897
Alternator	Nikola Tesla	1891	US447,921
Ampère's Law	André-Marie Ampère	1820
Answering Machine	Willy Müller	1935	US2,816,167
Arc Lamp	William Edwards Staite	1834
B
Battery (Voltaic Pile)	Alessandro Volta	1800
Beverage Antenna	Harold Beverage	1921
Biconical Antenna	Oliver Lodge	1898	US609,154
Bioelectricity/Bioelectrogenesis	Luigi Galvani	1780s
Biot-Savart Law	Jean Baptiste Biot Felix Savart	1820
C
Capacitor	Ewald Georg von Kleist	1745
Car Radio	Paul Galvin William Powell Lear	1929 1930	US1,944,139
Cassette Tape	Philips Company	1962
Cathode Ray Tube (CTR)	Karl Ferdinand Braun	1897
Cathode Rays	Julius Plücker	1859
Cell Phone	Martin Cooper	1973	US3,906,166
Citizens' Band Radio (CB)	Al Gross	1948
CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor)	Frank Wanlass (Fairchild Semiconductor)	1963	US3,356,858
Color Television	Peter Goldmark Alfred Schroeder	1940 1947
Compactron	General Electric (GE)	1961
Compact Disc (CD)	James T. Russell	1965
Compass	China	350 AD
Computer (Analytical Engine)	Charles Babbage	1837
Conservation of Electric Charge	James Clerk Maxwell	1865
Coulomb's Law	Charles-Augustin de Coulomb	1787
CPU (Central Processing Unit) - Relay	Konrad Zuse	1941
CPU (Central Processing Unit) - PC	Intel (8080)	1974
Crookes Tube	William Crookes	c1875
Crystal Oscillator	Paul Langevin	1917	FR505,703
Crystal Radio Receiver	Greenleaf Whittier Pickard	1900	US836,531
Curie's Law	Pierre Curie	1895
D
Daniell (Daniel) Cell	John Frederic Daniell	1836
Darlington Pair	Sidney Darlington (Bell Laboratories)	1953	US2,663,806
Diamagnetism	Michael Faraday	1845
Differential Amplifier	Otto Herbert Schmitt	1937	Never Patented
Digital Camera	NASA	1960s
Digital Micromirror Device (DMD)	Larry Hornbeck William E. Nelson	1987
Digital TAD (Telephone Answering Device)	Kazuo Hashimoto	1984	US4,616,110
Diode	John Ambrose Fleming	1904	US803,684 GB24,805
Displacement Current	James Clerk Maxwell	1865
Distributor	Frank Conrad Arthur Atwater Kent	1917 1920	US1,219,704 US1,474,970
Digital Light Processing (DLP)	Larry Hornbeck William E. Nelson	1987	US4,710,732 US4,662,746
DVD (Digital Video Disc)	Philips, Sony, Toshiba, Time-Warner, Matsushita Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Pioneer, Thomson, JVC, IBM	1995
E
Electric Car	Thomas Davenport	1833	US132
Electric Charge	Thales of Miletus	600 BC
Electric Distribution System	Thomas Alva Edison	1882	US266,793
Electric Field	Thales of Miletus	600 BC
Electric Motor	Michael Faraday	1821
Electrical Generator (Dynamo)	Michael Faraday Hippolyte Pixii	1832 1832
Electric Guitar	Lloyd Loar	1923
Electrolysis	Michael Faraday	1832
Electrolytic Capacitor	Julius Edgar Lilienfeld	1928	US2,013,564
Electromagnet	William Sturgeon	1825
Electromagnetic / Magnetic Field	Hans Christian Oersted	1820
Electromagnetic Induction (Faraday's Law)	Michael Faraday	1831
Electromagnetism	James Clerk Maxwell	1865
Electron	Joseph John (J.J.) Thomson	1897
Electronic Ignition	Chrysler Corporation	1970
Electron Charge (Oil-Drop Experiment)	Robert Millikan	1909
Electron Gun
Electroplating	Luigi V. Brugnatelli	1805
EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory)	Dov Frohman (Intel)	1971
F
Faraday Cage	Michael Faraday	1836
Fax Machine / Facsimile	Alexander Bain	1842
Faraday Effect	Michael Faraday	1845
Ferromagnetism	Pierre Curie	1895
FET - Field Effect Transistor	Julius Edgar Lilienfeld	1928	US1,745,175
Filter
Fluorescent Lamp	Edmund Germer & Friedrich Meyer & Hans J. Spanner	1926	US2,182,732
FM Radio	Edwin Howard Armstrong	1933	US1,342,885
Fuel Cell	Francis Thomas Bacon	1932	GB667,298
Full Spectrum Lighting	John Ott	1950s	US4,091,441
G
Galvanic Cell	Luigi Galvani	1780
Galvanometer	Johann S. Schweigger	1822
Gauss's Law	Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss	1867
Geiger Counter Tube	Hans (Johannes Wilhelm) Geiger & W. Müller (Mueller)	1908
Geissler Tube	Heinrich Geissler	1857
Global Positioning System (GPS)	U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)	1960s
Glow Plug	Ben Shereshaw Ray Arden	1946
H
Hall Effect	Edwin Hall	1879
High-Temperature Superconductivity	Johannes Bednorz Karl Müller	1986
Hybrid Vehicle	Ferdinand Porsche	1899
Hysteresis	James Alfred Ewing Charles Proteus Steinmetz	1890 1891
I
Ignition Coil	Nikola Tesla	1898	US609,250
Ignition System	Charles Kettering	1911	US1,150,523
Incandescent Light Bulb	Thomas Alva Edison	1879	US223,898
Inductor (Induction Coil)	Michael Faraday	1831
Integrated Circuit (Microchip)	Jack Kilby Robert Noyce	1961 1961	US3,138,743 US2,981,877
J
Joule's Law	James Prescott Joule	1840
K
Kirchhoff's Laws	Gustav Kirchhoff	1845
Klystron Tube	Russell Varian & Sigurd Varian & William Hansen	1937 1937 1937
L
Lenz's Law	Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz	1834
Leyden Jar	Pieter van Musschenbroek	1746
Lightning Rod	Benjamin Franklin	1752
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)	James Fergason	1970	US3,731,986
Logic Gate	Charles Babbage Almon Strowger Nikola Tesla	1837 1891 1898	US447,918 US613,809
Lorentz Force Law	Hendrik Antoon Lorentz
Loudspeaker	Ernst Siemens Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge	1877 1898	GB4685 Ger2355 GB9712
M
Magnet (Lodestones)	Ancient Greece	600 BC
Magneto Ignition	Robert Bosch	1898
Magnetohydrodynamics	Hannes Alfvén	1970
Magnetostriction	James Prescott Joule	1842
Maximum Power Theorem	Moritz von Jacobi	1839
Maxwell's Equations	James Clerk Maxwell	1865
Meissner Effect	Walter Meissner Robert Ochsenfeld	1933
Microphone	Emile Berliner	1877	US224,573
Microwave Oven	Percy LaBaron Spencer	1945	US2,495,429
Morse Code	Samuel Morse	1840	US1,647
N
Neon Lamp	Georges Claude	1910	US1,125,476
O
Ohm's Law	Georg Simon Ohm	1827
Operational Amplifier
Oudin Coil	Paul Marie Oudin Jacques d'Arsonval	1898 1898
P
Pager	Al Gross	1949
Paramagnetism	Pierre Curie	1895
Phonograph	Thomas Alva Edison	1877	US200,521
Photoelectric Effect	Alexandre Edmond Becquerel	1839
Photoresistor
Photovoltaic Cell (Solar Cell)	Russell Ohl	1946	US2,402,662
Piezoelectricity	Pierre Curie Jacques Curie	1880
Potentiometer (Rheostat)	Sir Charles Wheatstone	1840
Push-Pull Amplifier	Edwin H. Colpitts	1912
Pyroelectricity	Theophrastus	314 BC
R
Radar (RAdio Detection and Ranging)	Christian Huelsmeyer	1904	US810,150
Radio	Guglielmo Marconi	1901	GB12039 GB7777 US763,772
Radio Telescope	Grote Reber	1937
Radio Waves (RF)	James Clerk Maxwell	1865
Regenerative Circuit	Edwin Armstrong	1914	US1,113,149
Relay	Joseph Henry	1835
Remote Control	Nikola Tesla	1898	US613,809
Resistance	Georg Simon Ohm	1827
Resistor
S
Schottky Diode	Walter H. Schottky	1938
Semiconductor	Russell S. Ohl	1940
Silicon	Antoine Lavoisier	1787
Silicon-Controlled Rectifier (SCR)	General Electric (GE)	1958
SI Electricity/Magnetism Units	11th General Conference on Weights and Measures	1960
Solar Cell (Silicon)	Russell Ohl	1941	US2,402,662
Spark Plug	Nikola Tesla Richard Simms Robert Bosch	1898 1898 1898	US609,250 GB24859 GB26907
Special Relativity for Beginners Special Relativity	Albert Einstein	1905
Superconductivity	Heike Kamerlingh Onnes	1911
T
Tape Recorder (magnetic)	Semi Joseph Begun	1934	US2,048,487 US2,048,488
Telegraph	Samuel Morse	1838	US1,647
Telephone	Alexander Graham Bell	1876	US174,465
Telephone Switching System (Telephone Exchange)	Almon Strowger	1889	US447,918
Television	Vladimir Kosma Zworykin John Logie Baird Philo Taylor Farnsworth	1923 1924 1927	US2,141,059 US1,773,980
Tesla Coil	Nikola Tesla	1891	US454,622 US514,168
Thermistor	Samuel Ruben	1930	US2,021,49
Thermoelectricity	Thomas Johann Seebeck Jean Peltier	1821 1834
Torsion Balance	John Michell Charles-Augustin de Coulomb	1750 1777
Touch Screen Technology	Sam Hurst	1974	US3,662,105 US3,798,370
Transistor (Bipolar Junction Transistor - BJT)	John Bardeen & William Shockley & Walter Brattain	1947	US2,524,035 US2,569,347
Transistor Radio	Richard C. Koch (Industrial Development Engineering Associates)	1955	US2,892,931
Transformer	William Stanley	1886	US349,611
Triac (TRIode for Alternating Current)	General Electric (GE)	1960s
Triboelectric Effect	Thales of Miletus	600 BC
Tunnel Diode (Esaki)	Leo Esaki (Sony)	1958	US4,198,644
V
Vacuum	Galileo Galilei Evangelista Torricelli Blaise Pascal	1594 1643 1647
Vacuum Tube (Audion, Triode)	Lee De Forest	1906	US879,532
Van de Graaf Generator	Robert Jemison Van de Graaff	1929	US1,991,236
Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits (VLSI)	Carver Mead	1969
Video Cassette Recorder (VCR)	Sony	1971
W
Walkie Talkie	Al Gross Henryk Magnuski	1938 1940
Walkman	RCA / Sony	1979
Wheatstone Bridge	Samuel Hunter Christie Sir Charles Wheatstone	1833 1843
WiTricity	Marin Soljačić	2007
X
X-rays	Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen	1895
X-ray Tube	Wilhelm Roengten	1895
Y
Yagi-Uda Antenna	Shintaro Uda	1926
Z
Zener Diode	Clarence Melvin Zener	1915