Inventions and Discoveries

This is a tricky subject for quizzers – because many things don't just get invented out of the blue by one person; they rely on continuous improvement, often by a number of people working independently. Please use this page with care.

Electric Lights

Discovered incandescence in a platinum wire, in 1802; also invented the carbon arc – the first practical electric light – around 1805		Humphry Davy
Granted the first patent for an incandescent lamp, with a glass bulb and a partial vacuum, in 1841		Frederick de Moleyns
Demonstrated a lamp with a carbonised paper filament, in 1860, and patented an improved version in 1880		Sir Joseph Swan
Made improvements to Swan's design, and patented his version – the world's first practical, reliable, long–lasting (and therefore marketable) incandescent light bulb – in the US (with Swan's agreement) in 1878		Thomas Edison

The first three of these were all English.

If setting questions about Swan and/or Edison, remember that Swan demonstrated his lamp in 1860 but didn't patent it until 1880, while Edison first patented his version (in the USA) in 1878.

Machine Guns

English inventor of a gun capable of firing multiple times without reloading (1718)		James Puckle
American inventor of the first machine gun (not automatically reloaded – 1861)		Richard Gatling
American–born, British–based inventor of the first portable, fully–automatic machine gun (recoil operated – 1883)		Hiram Maxim

Photography

Created the world's oldest surviving product of a photographic process, in 1825; made the famous print, made from a photoengraved printing plate, of the view from a window at Le Gras (his ancestral family estate in the village of Saint–Loup–de–Varennes, in Burgundy) in 1826 or 1827		Joseph Niepce
French inventor of the first publicly announced photographic process – using silver–plated copper plates – in 1839		Louis Daguerre
English inventor of the first process for creating reasonably light–fast and permanent photographs that was made available to the public (using paper); claimed to have produced photographs using this method in 1834 – i.e. before Daguerre		William Henry Fox Talbot
US inventor of the first practicable film in roll form (1884), and the first camera designed to use it (1888)		George Eastman

Textiles

These inventions were all important drivers of the Industrial Revolution.

Born Bury 1704; invented the flying shuttle, 1733		John Kay
Born near Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, in 1720; invented the spinning jenny, 1764		James Hargreaves
Born Preston, 1732; patented the spinning frame (water frame) in 1769; built the first cotton spinning factory at Cromford, Derbyshire, in 1771 – probably the first modern factory		Richard Arkwright
Born in 1753, in one of the oldest houses in Bolton, Lancashire; invented the spinning mule in 1779 as a hybrid of Arkwright's spinning frame and Hargreaves's spinning jenny		Samuel Crompton
Born in 1743, in Marnham (near Lincoln, but in Nottinghamshire); invented the power loom in 1784; died in 1823, just as his invention was coming into practical use		Edmund Cartwright
French inventor of the punched card loom (1801) – a link between the textile industry of the Industrial Revolution and the computer technology of today		Joseph Louis Jacquard
US inventor of the cotton gin (1894), which automated the separation of cotton fibres from the seeds and and greatly increased the profitability of cotton as a crop		Eli Whitney

Telescopes

Refractors

Three Dutch spectacle makers, commonly credited with the invention of the (refracting) telescope in around 1608		Hans Lippershey
		Zacharias Jansen
		Jacob Metius
Heard about the Dutch telescope in June 1609, built his own within a month; in 1610 he improved the design, became the first person to use a telescope to make observations of a celestial body, and discovered the largest four moons of Jupiter		Galileo Galilei

The invention of the microscope is closely associated with that of the refracting telescope. The principal candidates for the invention are Hans Lippershey, Zacharias Jansen (see above) and Cornelis Drebbel.

Unlike a reflecting telescope (see below), a refractor is closed at both ends. This makes them less susceptible to dirt, and also to the movement of air in the tube – thus giving a sharper, steadier image. But a refractor is necessarily longer than a reflector, and can suffer from chromatic aberration (separation of colours around the image, making rainbow patterns). Refractors are also more expensive to make than reflectors.

Reflectors

Scottish mathematician and astronomer: described a reflecting telescope in 1663, and gave his name to it		James Gregory
Built the first practical reflecting telescope (using a convex secondary mirror) in 1668, and gave his name to it		Isaac Newton
English polymath: built the first Gregorian telescope (i.e. using Gregory's design as described in 1663), in 1673		Robert Hooke
French priest: described, and gave his name to, a reflecting telescope, which largely superseded the Gregorian reflector as the alternative to the Newtonian design		Laurent Cassegrain

Reflecting telescopes are cheaper to make than refractors, but the design must overcome the problem of allowing the viewing of an image without obstructing the primary mirror. The Gregorian, Newtonian and Cassegrain designs all use different methods to do this.

Cassegrain reflectors can be more compact than Newtonians, because the light is 'folded' twice inside the tube, making two journeys rather than one. But the Newtonian is cheaper to make.

Thermometers

Believed to have discovered the principle on which the first thermometers were based – that the density of a liquid changes in proportion to its temperature; invented a thermoscope (a device for showing changes in temperature, but without a numeric scale) based on this principle, around 1593		Galileo Galilei
Italian physician: produced the first medical thermometer, in 1612		Santorio Santorio
Venetian mathematician, and close friend of Galileo: added a scale to Galileo's thermoscope to enable the quantitative measurement of temperature, and produced more convenient portable thermometers, around 1611–13		Giovanni Sagredo
Italian astronomer and mathematician, published the first clear diagram of a thermoscope, in 1617		Giuseppe Biancani
Dutch inventor – more famous as the builder of the first navigable submarine, for the English Royal Navy (1620): built an oven in the 1620s which included an early thermometer with a heat scale; also, while working on a coloured liquid for a thermometer, accidentally made the discovery that led to a much improved carmine dye (cochineal)		Cornelis Drebbel
English physician: published the first diagram of a thermometer (i.e. a thermoscope with a scale) in 1638		Robert Fludd
German physicist, invented the Mercury thermometer (the first accurate thermometer) in 1714		Gabriel Farenheit

While on the subject of the development of the thermometer, it's interesting to note that the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales of temperature were devised in 1724 and 1742 respectively.

Toilets

Sadly, and contrary to the widespread misapprehension, the flush toilet was not actually invented by Thomas Crapper. But he did play a part in its history:

English courtier – godson of Queen Elizabeth I: described a forerunner to the modern flush toilet, which was installed at his house at Kelston, Somerset, in A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, called the Metamorphosis of Ajax (1596) – a political allegory and a coded attack on the monarchy		Sir John Ha(r)rington
Scottish watchmaker: granted the first patent for a flush toilet; invented the S–shaped trap (or bend) in 1775 to retain water permanently within the bowl, thus preventing sewer gases from entering buildings		Alexander Cumming
London plumber who, in 1880, invented the U–bend – which couldn't jam, so, unlike the S–bend, didn't need an overflow		Thomas Crapper

Inventions

In this section, each answer is an invention.

Invented in Norway, 1926, by Erik Rotheim; first practical application (in the US military as insecticide, 1941) by Lyle Goodhue and William Sullivan		Aerosol spray
Invented in 1922 by the Nobel Prize–winning Swedish physicist Gustaf Dalén; introduced to England in 1929, and manufactured there from 1930		AGA cooker
Machine that uses high–pressure saturated steam to sterilise equipment and supplies – invented in 1879 (or 1884) by the French microbiologist Charles Chamberland		Autoclave
The subject of museums in La Crosse, Kansas; McLean, Texas; and DeKalb, Illinois		Barbed wire
Patented in 1691 by John Lofting, a Dutch inventor, merchant and manufacturer who moved from Amsterdam to London in about 1688, and improved in 1797 by Joseph Bramah, inventor of the hydraulic press in 1795 (who is often credited with this invention also)		Beer engine
Christophe des Rosiers, furniture maker to the French royal family, is said to have installed in the royal palace in 1710, one of the earliest examples of the		Bidet
Patented in 1912 by Swiss chemist Jacques E. Brandenberger, who had set out to create a fabric that would repel liquids; made from regenerated cellulose; name is a combination of 'cellulose' and a French word meaning 'transparent'		Cellophane
Invented in 1771 by the Swedish–German chemist Christian Weigel; improved in 1794 by Johann Friedrich August Göttling (German), but known by the name of Justus von Liebig (also German) who popularised it in the mid–19th century		Condenser
Invented in 1947 by Valerie Hunter Gordon (née Ferranti – grand–daughter of Sebastian de Ferranti, founder of the British electrical engineering firm) following the birth of the third of her six children		Disposable nappy
ENIAC – developed at the University of Pennsylvania for the US Army – was the first general–purpose		Electronic computer
Portable accessory: first marketed in the 1920s and registered as a trademark in 1930, but is most closely associated with the Yuppie lifestyle of the 1980s		Filofax
Originally known as the louisette, after the French surgeon Antoine Louis (1723–92) who built an early prototype		Guillotine
Hungarian–born British engineer Dennis Gabor won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1971 for the invention of		Holography
Invented by (in 1963), and named after, an Italian immigrant to the USA, whose son Kenny was born with rheumatoid arthritis		Jacuzzi
In 1936, American psychologist Dr. August Dvorak, and his brother–in–law Dr. William Dealey, patented a simplified		Keyboard
Invented around 1963 by former World War II airman Edward Walker, and manufactured ever since by his company Mathmos in Poole, Dorset (he died in 2000, aged 82)		Lava lamp
Invented in 1874 by the appropriately–named French polymath scientist Gustave Trouvé		Metal detector
Hans Lippershey (1570–1619), Zacharias Jansen (c.1580–c.1635; see above), Cornelis Drebbel (1572–1633) and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) – all Dutch – and Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) all contributed, or claimed to have contributed, or were said to have contributed, to the development of the		Microscope
Patented in Germany, in 1920, by Max Pohlig and Ernst Gottschall		Pogo stick
Often credited to George Crum, a mixed race (African / Native American) chef at a restaurant in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1853		Potato crisps (chips in the US)
English inventors Sir William Congreve (1804) and William Moore (1813), Colonel Edward Mounier Boxer of the Royal Artillery (1865), Russian scientists Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1903) and Sergei Korolev (1950s and 60s), US Professor Robert H. Goddard (1920) and German scientist Hermann Oberth (1923), were all involved in the development of		Rockets
Invented in 1958 by Dutch rally driver Maurice Gatsonides, in an attempt to find a way to drive faster		Speed camera
Invented in 1913 by Harry Brearley of Sheffield (but there had been earlier comparable products)		Stainless steel
Described by James Watt in 1784; built in 1840 by James Nasmyth; used in many industrial processes, but gradually replaced in the 20th century by mechanical and hydraulic equivalents		Steam hammer
Term used at least as early as the mid–19th century (as quoted in the Beatles song For the Benefit of Mr. Kite); modern version first built in 1936 by US gymnasts George Nissen and Larry Griswold; name comes from the Spanish word for a diving board		Trampoline
Form of transport, demonstrated in Berlin in 1882 by Werner von Siemens (founder of the company that bears his name, and after whom the SI unit of electrical conductance was named); he called it the elektromote		Trolleybus
Invented by Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral, after a walk in the woods with his dog in 1941; patented in 1955, and manufactured commercially from the late 1950s		Velcro
Thomas Edison's first patent (1869) was for an electronic		Vote counter
Alva J. Fisher is often, but incorrectly (according to Wikipedia), named as the inventor of the (electric)		Washing machine

Inventors

In this section, each answer is the name of an inventor.

French–born father of a famous son: co–patentee (along with former naval adventurer Thomas Cochrane, Lord Cochrane) of a machine that enabled the building of the first tunnel under the Thames, which he completed in partnership with his son in 1843		Marc Isambard Brunel
American inventor of an electric organ (1933) and a clock (1928 – using an electric motor that was synchronised with the frequency of the supply current), both of which are named after him; also the Novachord (1938 – often considered to be the world's first commercial polyphonic synthesizer)		Laurens Hammond
Devon–born inventor, granted a patent in 1698 for his 'fire engine' – a revolutionary method of pumping water, which was the first steam–powered device to be used commercially, solving the problem of mine drainage and making widespread public water supply practicable		Thomas Savery

Most of the entries in the following table were transcribed from The Guinness Book of Answers (3rd edition, 1980). I should point out that many of them fall into the category of "not invented out of the blue by one person" and they should all be used with care.

Printing press (moveable type)			1455		Johann Gutenburg
Logarithms			1614		John Napier
Slide rule			1621		Rev. William Oughtred
Adding machine			1623		Wilhelm Schickard
Barometer			1644		Evangelista Torricelli
Pendulum clock			1656		Christiaan Huygens
Seed drill			1701		Jethro Tull
Atmospheric steam engine (later improved by Watt)			1705		Thomas Newcomen
Chronometer			1735		John Harrison
Lightning conductor			1752		Benjamin Franklin
Soda water			1767		Joseph Priestley
Steam–driven car			1769		Nicolas Cugnot
Toothbrush (while in prison for causing a riot)			1770		William Addis
Bifocal spectacles			1780		Benjamin Franklin
Hot air balloon			1783		Jacques & Joseph Montgolfier
Parachute			1783		Louis–Sebastien Lenormand
Gas lighting (domestic)			1792		William Murdock
Hydraulic press			1795		Joseph Bramah
Electric battery			1800		Alessandro Volta
Steam locomotive			1804		Richard Trevithick
Canning (food preservation)			1809		Nicholas Appert
Stethoscope (credited to)			1815		Dr. Rene Laennec
Miner's safety lamp			1816		Humphry Davy
False teeth (dental plate)			1817		Anthony A. Plantson
Waterproof fabric			1823		Charles Mackintosh
Electromagnet			1824		William Sturgeon (GB)
Portland cement			1824		Joseph Aspdin
Scuba–diving device			1825		William James
Friction match			1827		John Walker
Sewing machine (first practical domestic)			1829		Isaac Singer
English concertina			1829		Charles Wheatstone
Lawn mower			1830		Edwin Beard Budding
Electromagnet (improved)			1831		Joseph Henry (USA)
Electromagnetic induction: dynamo, transformer, DC motor			1831		Michael Faraday
Railway sleeping car			1837		Philip Berlin
Steel plough			1837		John Deere
Bicycle (pedal–driven, via the rear wheel)			1839		Kirkpatrick MacMillan
Vulcanisation			1841		Charles Goodyear
Facsimile (fax) machine			1843		Alexander (Sandy) Bain
Electrical telegraph			1844		Samuel Morse
Pneumatic bicycle tyre (patented, not developed)			1845		William Thomson
Revolver			1845		Samuel Colt
Christmas cracker (confectionery manufacturer)			1846		Tom Smith
Safety pin			1849		Walter Hunt
Airship (non–rigid)			1852		Henri Giffard
Gyroscope			1852		Jean Bernard Leon Foucault
Safety lift (elevator)			1852		Elisha Graves Otis
Bunsen burner			1855		Robert Wilhelm von Bunsen
Burglar alarm			1858		Edwin T. Holmes
Linoleum			1860		Frederick Walton
Press stud			1860		John Newnham
Celluloid			1861		Alexander Parkes (GB)
Torpedo			1866		Robert Whitehead
Barbed wire			1867		Lucien B. Smith
Dynamite (demonstrated 14 July)			1867		Alfred Nobel
Air brake			1868		George Westinghouse
Typewriter			1868		Christopher Sholes
Margarine			1869		Hippolyte Mege–Mouries
Celluloid (developed and trade marked)			1870		J. W. Hyatt (USA)
Toilet roll			1871		Seth Wheeler
Electric motor (DC)			1873		Zenobe Gramme
Barbed wire			1874		Joseph F. Glidden
Carburettor			1876		Gottlieb Daimler
Carpet sweeper			1876		Melville Reuben Bissell
Telephone (and Microphone)			1876		Alexander Graham Bell
International load line (on ships)			1876		Samuel Plimsoll
Phonograph			1877		Thomas Edison
Cash register			1879		James J. Ritty
Electric lamp			1879		Thomas Edison
Stereo			1881		Clement Adler (Ger)
Electric flat iron			1882		H. W. Seeley
Fountain pen			1884		Lewis E. Waterman
Motor cycles			1885		Gottlieb Daimler
Gramophone (flat disc – patented)			1887		Emile Berliner (US)
Esperanto			1887		Ludovic Zamenhof
Ball–point pen			1888		John J. Loud
Electric motor (AC)			1888		Nikola Tesla
Petrol–driven motor car			1888		Karl Benz
Photographic roll film (and a camera to use it)			1888		George Eastman
Pneumatic bicycle tyre			1888		John Boyd Dunlop
Vacuum flask			1892		Sir James Dewar
Zip fastener: patented by			1893		Whitcombe Judson
Cinematograph			1895		Auguste & Louis Lumiere
Pneumatic motor car tyres			1895		Andre & Edouard Michaux
Compression ignition engine (commonly known by his name)			1895		Rudolf Diesel
Safety razor			1895		King Camp Gillette
Automatic revolver			1895		C. V. Fosberry
Paper clip			1899		Johann Vaaler
Rigid airship			1900		Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin
Vacuum cleaner (motorised)			1901		Hubert Cecil Booth
Vacuum cleaner (portable)			1907		James Murray Spangler
Artificial silk (rayon)			1902		Charles Frederick Cross
Disc brake			1902		Dr. F. Lanchester
Aeroplane			1903		Orville and Wilbur Wright
Radio valve			1904		Sir Ambrose Fleming
Bakelite (first plastic made from synthetic components)			1907		Leo Hendrick Baekeland
Cellophane			1908		Dr. Jacques Brandenburger
Combine harvester			1911		Benjamin Holt
Maser	Invention		1917		Albert Einstein
	First demonstration		1953		Dr. Charles H. Townes (see Laser)
Television			1926		John Logie Baird
Penicillin			1928		Alexander Fleming
Rotary engine			1929		Felix Wankel
Frozen food (peas)			1930		Clarence Birdseye
Electric razor			1931		Colonel Jacob Schick
Cats' eyes			1934		Percy Shaw
Trampoline			c1934		George Nissen, Larry Griswold
Parking meter			1935		Carl McGee
Simplified keyboard			1936		August Dvorak
Jet engine (first successful)			1937		Sir Frank Whittle
Nylon			1937		Wallace Hume Carothers
Ball–point pen (first practical)			1938		Lazlo and Georg Biro
Teflon			1938		Roy Plunkett
DDT (insecticide properties of)			1939		Paul Muller (Swiss chemist)
The first successful helicopter			1941		Igor Sikorsky
Electronic computer (ENIAC)			1942		University of Pennsylvania
Aqualung			1943		Jacques Cousteau
LSD (Swiss scientist)			1943		Albert Hoffman
Gave his name to a hand–held signalling lamp (typically used for morse code)			c. 1940		Arthur Cyril Webb Aldis
Bathyscaphe (bathyscaph, bathyscape)			1945–8		Auguste Piccard
Microwave oven			1946		Percy LeBaron Spencer
Polaroid camera			1947		Edwin Land
Transistor (the first practical point–contact type) – developed at Bell Laboratories			1947		John Bardeen
					Walter Brattain
					William Shockley
Long–playing record			1948		Peter Goldmark (for CBS)
Junction transistor			1951		Wallace, Sparks, Shockley
DNA			1953		Francis Crick
					James Watson
Hovercraft			1955		Christopher Cockerell
Correction fluid			1956		Bette Nesmith (mother of Mike)
Laser	Invention (theory)		1960		Dr. Charles H. Townes
	First demonstration		1960		Dr. Ted Maiman
Computer mouse (patent applied for)			1967		Douglas Engelbart
Post–it note (adhesive used in)			1968		Spencer Silver
Pocket calculator			1972		Clive Sinclair
Post–it note (practical application for)			1974		Arthur (Art) Fry
Ballbarrow			1974		James Dyson
"Dual Cyclone" bagless vacuum cleaner			1986
Clockwork (wind–up) radio			1991		Trevor Baylis

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