What were the greatest inventions/technological advances of the 20th century?

Question

And why?

Answer 1

I900 The zeppelin invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

Charles Seeberger redesigned Jesse Reno's escalator and invented the modern escalator.



1901 King Camp Gillette invents the double-edged safety razor.

The first radio receiver, successfully received a radio transmission.

Hubert Booth invents a compact and modern vacuum cleaner.



1902 Willis Carrier invents the air conditioner.

French physicist George Claude invents neon light.

The lie detector or polygraph machine is invented by James Mackenzie.

The birth of the Teddy Bear.

George Claude invented neon light.



1903 Edward Binney and Harold Smith co-invent crayons.

Bottle-making machinery invented by Michael J. Owens.

The Wright brothers invent the first gas motored and manned airplane.

Mary Anderson invents windshield wipers.

William Coolidge invents ductile tungsten used in lightbulbs.



1904 Teabags invented by Thomas Suillivan.

Benjamin Holt invents a tractor.

John A Fleming invents a vacuum diode or Fleming valve.



1905 Albert Einstein published the Theory of Relativity and made famous the equation, E = mc2.  

Mary Anderson receives a patent for windshield wipers.



1906 William Kellogg invents Cornflakes.

Lewis Nixon invents the first sonar like device.

Lee Deforest invents electronic amplifying tube (triode).



1907 Leo Baekeland invents the first synthetic plastic called Bakelite.

Color photography invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere.

The very first piloted helicopter was invented by Paul Cornu.



1908 The gyrocompass invented by Elmer A. Sperry.

Cellophane invented by Jacques E. Brandenberger.

Model T first sold.

J W Geiger and W Müller invent the geiger counter.  

Fritz Haber invents the Haber Process for making artificial nitrates.  



1909 Instant coffee invented by G. Washington.



1910 Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture.

Georges Claude displayed the first neon lamp to the public on December 11, 1910, in Paris.



1911 Charles Franklin Kettering invents the first automobile electrical ignition system.



1912 Motorized movie cameras invented, replaced hand-cranked cameras.

The first tank patented by Australian inventor De La Mole.

Clarence Crane created Life Savers candy in 1912.



1913 The crossword puzzle invented by Arthur Wynne.

The Merck Chemical Company patented, what is now know as, ecstasy.

Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra.

Gideon Sundback invented the modern zipper.



1914 Garrett A. Morgan invents the Morgan gas mask.



1915 Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor co-invented Pyrex in New York City.



1916 Radios tuners invented, that received different stations.

Stainless steel invented by Henry Brearly.



1917 Gideon Sundback patented the modern zipper (not the first zipper).



1918 The superheterodyne radio circuit invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong. Today, every radio or television set uses this invention.

Charles Jung invented fortune cookies.



1919 The pop-up toaster invented by Charles Strite.

Short-wave radio invented.

The flip-flop circuit invented.

The arc welder invented.



1920 The tommy gun patented by John T Thompson.

The Band-Aid (pronounced 'ban-'dade) invented by Earle Dickson.



1921 Artificial life begins -- the first robot built.

John Larson invented the lie detector.



1922 Insulin invented by Sir Frederick Grant Banting.

The first 3-D movie (spectacles with one red and one green lens) is released.



1923 Garrett A. Morgan invents a traffic signal.

The television or iconoscope (cathode-ray tube) invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin.

John Harwood invented the self-windingwatch in 1923.

Clarence Birdseye invents frozen food.



1924 The dynamic loudspeaker invented by Rice and Kellogg.

Notebooks with spiral bindings invented.



1925 The mechanical television a precursor to the modern television, invented by John Logie Baird.



1926 Robert H. Goddard invents liquid-fueled rockets.  



1927 Eduard Haas III invents PEZ candy.

JWA Morrison invents the first quartz crystal watch.

Philo Taylor Farnsworth invents a complete electronic TV system.

Technicolor invented.

Erik Rotheim patents an aerosol can.

Warren Marrison developed the first quartz clock.

Philip Drinker invents the iron lung.



1928 Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.

Bubble gum invented by Walter E. Diemer.

Jacob Schick patented the electric shaver.  



1929 American, Paul Galvin invents the car radio.

Yo-Yo re-invented as an American fad.



1930 Scotch tape patented by 3M engineer, Richard G. Drew.

The frozen food process patented by Clarence Birdseye.

Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents neoprene.

The "differential analyzer", or analog computer invented by Vannevar Bush at MIT in Boston.

Frank Whittle and Dr Hans von Ohain both invent a jet engine.



1931 Harold Edgerton invented stop-action photography.

Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope.



1932 Polaroid photography invented by Edwin Herbert Land.

The zoom lens and the light meter invented.

Carl C. Magee invents the first parking meter.

Karl Jansky invents the radio telescope.



1933 Frequency modulation (FM radio) invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong.

Stereo records invented.

Richard M. Hollingshead builds a prototype drive-in movie theater in his driveway.



1934 Englishmen, Percy Shaw invents cat eyes or roads reflectors.

Charles Darrow claims he invented the game Monopoly.

Joseph Begun invents the first tape recorder for broadcasting - first magnetic recording.



1935 Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents nylon ( polymer 6.6.)

The first canned beer made.

Robert Watson-Watt patented radar.



1936 Bell Labs invents the voice recognition machine.

Samuel Colt patents the Colt revolver.



1937 Chester F. Carlson invents the photocopier.

The first jet engine is built.



1938 The ballpoint pen invented by Ladislo Biro.

Strobe lighting invented.

Roy J. Plunkett invented tetrafluoroethylene polymers or Teflon.

Nescafe or freeze-dried coffee invented.

The first working turboprop engine.



1939 Igor Sikorsky invents the first successful helicopter.

The electron microscope invented.



1940 Dr William Reich invents the orgone accumulator.

Peter Goldmark invents modern color television system.

Karl Pabst invents the jeep.



1941 Konrad Zuse's Z3, the first computer controlled by software.

Aerosol spray cans invented by American inventors, Lyle David Goodloe and W.N. Sullivan.

Enrico Fermi invents the neutronic reactor.  



1942 John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built the first electronic digital computer.

Max Mueller designs a turboprop engine.



1943 Synthetic rubber invented.

Richard James invents the slinky.

James Wright invent silly putty.

Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD.

Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau invent the aqualung.



1944 The kidney dialysis machine invented by Willem Kolff.

Synthetic cortisone invented by Percy Lavon Julian.



1945 Vannevar Bush proposes hypertext.

The atomic bomb invented.



1946 The microwave oven invented by Percy Spencer.



1947 British/Hungarian scientist, Dennis Gabor, developed the theory of holography.

Mobile phones first invented. Although cell phones were not sold commercially until 1983, AT&T came up with the idea way back.

Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invent the transistor.

Earl Silas Tupper patented the Tupperware seal.



1948 The Frisbee® invented by Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni.

Velcro ® invented by George de Mestral.

Robert Hope-Jones invented the Wurlitzer jukebox.



1949 Cake mix invented.



1950 The first credit card (Diners) invented by Ralph Schneider

1951 Super glue invented.

Power steering invented by Francis W. Davis.

Charles Ginsburg invented the first videotape recorder (VTR).



1952 Mr. Potato Head patented.

The first patent for bar code (US Patent #2,612,994) issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver.

The first diet soft drink sold.

Edward Teller and team build the hydrogen bomb.



1953 Radial tires invented.

The first musical synthesizer invented by RCA.

David Warren invented the black box - flight recorder.

Transistor radio invented by Texas Instruments.



1954 Oral contraceptives invented.

The first nonstick pan produced.

The solar cell invented by Chaplin, Fuller and Pearson.

Ray Kroc started McDonalds.



1955 Tetracycline invented.

Optic fiber invented.



1956 The first computer hard disk used.

The hovercraft invented by Christopher Cockerell.

Bette Nesmith Graham invented "Mistake Out," later renamed Liquid Paper, to paint over mistakes made with a typewriter.  



1957 Fortran (computer language) invented.



1958 The modem invented.

Gordon Gould invents the laser.

The Hula Hoop invented by Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin.

The integrated circuit invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce.



1959 The internal pacemaker invented by Wilson Greatbatch.

Barbie Doll invented.

Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce both invent the microchip.



1960 The halogen lamp invented.



1961 Valium invented.

The nondairy creamer invented.



1962 The audio cassette invented.

The fiber-tip pen invented by Yukio Horie.

Spacewar, the first computer video game invented.

Dow Corp invents silicone breast implants.



1963 The first videodisc invented.



1964 Acrylic paint invented.

Permanent-press fabric invented.

BASIC (an early computer language) is invented by John George Kemeny and Tom Kurtz.



1965 Astroturf invented.

Soft contact lenses invented.

NutraSweet invented.

The compact disk invented by James Russell.

Kevlar invented by Stephanie Louise Kw