Rocket

The invention: Liquid-fueled rockets developed by Robert H. Goddard
made possible all later developments in modern rocketry,
which in turn has made the exploration of space practical.
The person behind the invention:

Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), an American physics professor

Robot (industrial)

The people behind the invention:

Karel Capek (1890-1938), a Czech playwright
George C. Devol, Jr. (1912- ), an American inventor
Joseph F. Engelberger (1925- ), an American entrepreneur

Refrigerant gas

The invention: A safe refrigerant gas for domestic refrigerators,
dichlorodifluoromethane helped promote a rapid growth in the
acceptance of electrical refrigerators in homes.
The people behind the invention:
Thomas Midgley, Jr. (1889-1944), an American engineer and
chemist
Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958), an American engineer and
inventor who was the head of research for General Motors
Albert Henne (1901-1967), an American chemist who was
Midgley’s chief assistant
Frédéric Swarts (1866-1940), a Belgian chemist
Toxic Gases
Refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners have had a major impact
on the way people live and work in the twentieth century.With
them, people can live more comfortably in hot and humid areas,
and a great variety of perishable foods can be transported and
stored for extended periods. As recently as the early nineteenth century,
the foods most regularly available to Americans were bread
and salted meats. Items now considered essential to a balanced diet,
such as vegetables, fruits, and dairy products, were produced and
consumed only in small amounts.

Pacemaker

The invention: 

A small device using transistor circuitry that regulates
the heartbeat of the patient in whom it is surgically emplaced.

The people behind the invention:

Ake Senning (1915- ), a Swedish physician
Rune Elmquist, co-inventor of the first pacemaker
Paul Maurice Zoll (1911- ), an American cardiologist

Nuclear reactor

The invention: 

The first nuclear reactor to produce substantial
quantities of plutonium, making it practical to produce usable
amounts of energy from a chain reaction.

The people behind the invention:

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), an American physicist
Martin D. Whitaker (1902-1960), the first director of Oak Ridge
National Laboratory
Eugene Paul Wigner (1902-1995), the director of research and
development at Oak Ridge

Nuclear power plant

The invention: 

The first full-scale commercial nuclear power plant, which gave birth to the nuclear power industry.  



The people behind the invention:

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), an Italian American physicist who
won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics
Otto Hahn (1879-1968), a German physical chemist who won the
1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Lise Meitner (1878-1968), an Austrian Swedish physicist
Hyman G. Rickover (1898-1986), a Polish American naval officer

Nuclear magnetic resonance

The invention: 

Procedure that uses hydrogen atoms in the human
body, strong electromagnets, radio waves, and detection equipment
to produce images of sections of the brain.

The people behind the invention:

Raymond Damadian (1936- ), an American physicist and
inventor
Paul C. Lauterbur (1929- ), an American chemist
Peter Mansfield (1933- ), a scientist at the University of
Nottingham, England

The Internet

The invention: 

A worldwide network of interlocking computer
systems, developed out of a U.S. government project to improve
military preparedness.

The people behind the invention:

Paul Baran, a researcher for the RAND corporation
Vinton G. Cerf (1943- ), an American computer scientist
regarded as the “father of the Internet”

Interchangeable parts

The invention: 

A key idea in the late Industrial Revolution, the
interchangeability of parts made possible mass production of
identical products.


The people behind the invention:

Henry M. Leland (1843-1932), president of Cadillac Motor Car
Company in 1908, known as a master of precision
Frederick Bennett, the British agent for Cadillac Motor Car
Company who convinced the Royal Automobile Club to run
the standardization test at Brooklands, England
Henry Ford (1863-1947), founder of Ford Motor Company who
introduced the moving assembly line into the automobile
industry in 1913

Heat pump

The invention:

A device that warms and cools buildings efficiently
and cheaply by moving heat from one area to another.

The people behind the invention:

T. G. N. Haldane, a British engineer
Lord Kelvin (William Thomson, 1824-1907), a British
mathematician, scientist, and engineer
Sadi Carnot (1796-1832), a French physicist and
thermodynamicist

Gas-electric car

The invention: 

A hybrid automobile with both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor.

The people behind the invention: 

Victor Wouk -   an American engineer Tom Elliott, executive vice president of
                           American Honda Motor Company
Hiroyuki Yoshino - president and chief executive officer of Honda Motor Company
Fujio Cho              -  president of Toyota Motor Corporation

Freeze-drying

The invention: 

Method for preserving foods and other organic matter by freezing them and using a vacuum to remove their water content without damaging their solid matter.

The people behind the invention:

Earl W. Flosdorf (1904- ), an American physician
Ronald I. N. Greaves (1908- ), an English pathologist
Jacques Arsène d’Arsonval (1851-1940), a French physicist

ENIAC computer

The invention: 

The first general-purpose electronic digital computer.

The people behind the invention:

John Presper Eckert (1919-1995), an electrical engineer
John William Mauchly (1907-1980), a physicist, engineer, and
professor
John von Neumann (1903-1957), a Hungarian American
mathematician, physicist, and logician
Herman Heine Goldstine (1913- ), an army mathematician
Arthur Walter Burks (1915- ), a philosopher, engineer, and
professor
John Vincent Atanasoff (1903-1995), a mathematician and
physicist

Electron microscope

The invention: 

A device for viewing extremely small objects that
uses electron beams and “electron lenses” instead of the light
rays and optical lenses used by ordinary microscopes.

The people behind the invention:

Ernst Ruska (1906-1988), a German engineer, researcher, and
inventor who shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics
Hans Busch (1884-1973), a German physicist
Max Knoll (1897-1969), a German engineer and professor
Louis de Broglie (1892-1987), a French physicist who won the
1929 Nobel Prize in Physics

Electric refrigerator

The invention: 

An electrically powered and hermetically sealed
food-storage appliance that replaced iceboxes, improved production,
and lowered food-storage costs.

The people behind the invention:

Marcel Audiffren, a French monk
Christian Steenstrup (1873-1955), an American engineer
Fred Wolf, an American engineer

Compressed-air-accumulating power plant

The invention:

Plants that can be used to store energy in the form
of compressed air when electric power demand is low and use it
to produce energy when power demand is high.

The organization behind the invention:

Nordwestdeutsche Kraftwerke, a Germany company

Community antenna television

The invention: 

Asystem for connecting households in isolated areas to common antennas to improve television reception, community antenna television was a forerunner of modern cabletelevision systems.

The people behind the invention: 

Robert J. Tarlton, the founder of CATV in eastern Pennsylvania
Ed Parsons, the founder of CATV in Oregon
Ted Turner (1938- ), founder of the first cable superstation,WTBS

Color television

The invention: 

System for broadcasting full-color images over the
airwaves.

The people behind the invention:

Peter Carl Goldmark (1906-1977), the head of the CBS research
and development laboratory
William S. Paley (1901-1990), the businessman who took over
CBS
David Sarnoff (1891-1971), the founder of RCA

Cell phone

The invention: 

Mobile telephone system controlled by computers
to use a region’s radio frequencies, or channels, repeatedly,
thereby accommodating large numbers of users.

The people behind the invention:

William Oliver Baker (1915- ), the president of Bell
Laboratories
Richard H. Fefrenkiel, the head of the mobile systems
engineering department at Bell

CAT scanner

The invention:

 A technique that collects X-ray data from solid,
opaque masses such as human bodies and uses a computer to
construct a three-dimensional image.


The people behind the invention:

Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield (1919- ), an English
electronics engineer who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine
Allan M. Cormack (1924-1998), a South African-born American
physicist who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine
James Ambrose, an English radiologist