Benjamin Franklin's inventions were so numerous and so influential, they landed him on the $100 bill. GeorgePeters / Getty Images Between running a print shop, engineering the U.S. postal system, starting America's first lending library and helping sow the seeds of the American Revolution, ...
George Westinghouse held the patent to many important inventions. Two of his most important inventions were the transformer, which allowed electricity to be sent over long distances, and the air brake. The latter invention allowed conductors to have the ability to stop a train. Prior to the inv...
The success of Explorer I, the first satellite that the United States launched into orbit, was made possible thanks to Hyde. Mary Sherman Morgan created this improved rocket fuel in 1957 while working as the technical lead at the Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation. RELATED:10 S...
as the idea developed over the course of thousands of years. Thales of Miletus was the first to research the phenomenon, but Benjamin Franklin is generally regarded as an American Renaissance man who helped us better understand electricity. It is certainly impossible to overestimate the importance o...
No, he didn't invent the world's coolest electric car. But Nikola Tesla was arguably the greatest geek who ever lived, always fixing things that weren't broken and coming up with amazing inventions in the process. We have him to thank for alternating current, the modern electric motor, re...
Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller was an American neo-futuristic architect, systems theorist, author, designer, and inventor. Fuller published more than 30 books, coining or popularizing terms such as "Spaceship Earth", ephemeralization, and synergetic. He also developed numerous inventions, mainly ...
When an American Presidential election happens, the whole world takes notice; this happens nowhere else in the world. How many people have drank Coke or Pepsi; or eaten at a McDonalds; or worn Nike shoes; or like an American cultural icon?This doesn't even really get into the sheer size...
10. ELECTRONIC TELEPATHY DEVICE When Patrick Flanagan was a teenager in the early 1960s, Life magazine listed him as one of the top scientists in the world. Among his inventions was the Neurophone, an electronic instrument that can program suggestions into a person directly through skin contact...
of 10 Business @ the Speed of Thought Photo from Amazon This book is a very expensive and hard-to-get collector's item that's written by Bill Gates himself. Gates gives the hard sell on why new technology is good for business and the need to regard it as an asset rather than an exp...
In a world of short-lived inventions, today’s gadgets and fads become tomorrow’s relics; sometimes by accident, often by design. Two hundred years of