Inventions
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi, a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, is not a technical term; however, the Alliance has used the term to describe only a narrow range of connectivity technologies including wireless local are network as well as PAN, LAN, and WAN. "IEEE 802.11", th...
Walkie-Talkie
A walkie-talkie, hand-held and portable, is a two-way radio transceiver. Its development has been credited to Donald L. Hings, Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola. Other armed forces were developing similar designs. Walkie-talkies were c...
Post-It
The Post-it note is a piece of stationery designed for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces through the use of a strip of adhesive on the back. They are most commonly seen in a 3-inch square and yellow in color although they can ...
Memory Card
A memory card or flash card is used for storing digital information through electronic flash memory. These memory cards are used in digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles. They are compact, recordable, an...
Kevlar
Kevlar, a trademark of para-aramid synthetic fiber, is related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. DuPont developed Kevlar in 1965 and was first commercially used in the 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires. Its normal form is as a...
Java
Java, a programming language originally developed by James Gosling, was developed at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995. Much of its syntax is derived from C and C++ but with a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities. The applications ar...
Insulin
Insulin, a hormone, is used to regulate carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells to take up glucose from the blood and store it as glycogen in the liver and muscle. This hormone stops the body from using fat as an energy source...
Ice Hockey
Ice Hockey is a sport in which skaters use sticks to direct a puck into the opposing team's goal. It is most popular in areas that get very cold such as Canada, Latvia, Nordic Countries, Russia, and the United States to name a few. Now that indoor arti...
Goaltender Mask
A goaltender mask, referred to a goalie mask, is worn by an ice hockey, inline hockey, and field hockey goaltenders in order to protect them from injury. In 1959, Jacques Plante was the first to create and use a practical mask. It was made of fiberglas...
Foghorn
A foghorn, most often used in foggy conditions, is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of hazards. Generally the term is used in marine transport. When lighthouses are obscured the foghorn provides an audible warning of any dangers to ships. They...
Basketball
Basketball, a team sport, is a game where two teams of five try to score by shooting a ball through the top of a hoop. It is one of the most popular sports in the world. The hoop is 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high mounted to a backboard. Field g...
Bowie Knife
A Bowie Knife, popularized by Colonel James "Jim" Bowie, is a style of fixed-blade knife although any large sheath knife is commonly referred to as a Bowie. The knife started gaining popularity after Jim Bowie used it in a duel at a fight called the Sa...
Boomerang
The boomerang is a flying tool, made of wood or carbon fiber-reinforced plastic, with a curved shape that is often used as a weapon or for sport. They have also been made of bones and come in many different shapes and sizes depending on their geographi...
Black Box
A black box can referred to as almost anything from a transistor to an algorithm to a human mind. The black box is a device, system, or object which can be view in terms of its input, output, and transfer characteristics without any knowledge of its in...
Transistor
A transistor, made of a solid piece of semiconductor material, is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals. It has at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of t...
Gore-Tex
Registered to W. L. Gore, Gore-Tex is a waterproof/breathable fabric that was co-invented by Wilbert L. Gore and Rowena Taylor. In 1976, Robert Gore was granted a patent for a porous form of polytetrafluoroethylene with a micro-structure characterized ...
Wetsuit
A wetsuit, worn by divers, windsurfers, and others engaged in water sports, is a garment, made of foamed neoprene that provides thermal insulation, abrasion resistance, and buoyancy. The suit provides insulation through bubbles of gas enclosed within t...
Napalm
Napalm, used for military operations, is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or other fuel. The term napalm comes from the ingredients of aluminum salts of naphthenic and palmitic acids. This style of napalm, however, has been long...
Windshield Wiper
The windshield wiper is a device used to clear rain and debris from a windshield. Almost every major vehicle is equipped with wipers, and most of the time they are a legal requirement. The wiper usually consists of an arm that pivots at one end with a ...
Traffic Cones
Traffic cones, which also have many other names, are cone shaped markers used primarily to redirect traffic in a safe manner. They are used to create separation or merge lanes during construction although more permanent markers are used if the diversio...
Sunglasses
Sunglasses are protective eyewear designed to shield the eyes from damaging or discomforting sunlight and high-energy light. They can also work as a visual aid. The ultraviolet radiation from the sun can cause several serious eye problems and many heal...
Staple Remover
A staple remover is a device that can remove a staple from a given material quickly without causing damage. The metal wedge at the end of the stapler can be used to achieve the same result; however, it tends to tear fragile papers. The staple remover i...
Silica Gel
Silica Gel, made synthetically from sodium silicate, is granular, vitreous, highly porous form of silica. Silica is a naturally occurring mineral that is purified and processed into either granular or beaded form. It has a strong affinity for water mol...
Richter magnitude scale
The Richter scale assigns a single number to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake. The scale uses a base-10 logarithm by calculating the logarithm of the combined horizontal amplitude of the largest displacement from zero on ...
Radar Altimeter
A radar altimeter measures altitude above the terrain beneath an aircraft as opposed to a barometric altimeter which provides the distance above a pre-determined datum, usually sea level. Radar is the underpinning principle of the system. Radio waves t...
pH Meter
A pH meter, typically consisting of a special measuring probe connected to an electronic meter, is an electronic instrument used to measure the pH (acidity or alkalinity) of a liquid. The probe measures pH as the hydrogen ion activity that surrounds a ...
Fortune Cookie
The fortune cookie, made of flour, sugar, vanilla, and oil, is a crisp cookie with a fortune wrapped inside. Generally these fortunes are words of faux wisdom or a vague prophecy possibly including a Chinese phrase with translation. Fortune cookies are...
Flyswatter
A flyswatter, usually consisting of a small rectangular sheet of flexible material, is a handheld device for smashing flies and other insects. The material is vented, thus reducing wind drag making it move faster in order to hit the target. The beginni...
Fiberglass
Fiberglass consists of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass. Although experimented with throughout history actual glass fibers were not mass produced until the invention of finer machine tooling. A dress with glass fibers was first worn in 1893 by...
Cotton Swabs
Cotton swabs, made of a small wad of cotton wrapped around both ends of a short rod, are commonly used in a variety of applications including first aid, cosmetics application, cleaning, and arts and crafts. Leo Gerstenzang created the cotton swab in th...
Bubblegum
Bubblegum, invented by Walter Diemer in 1928, is a chewing gum designed to be blown out of the mouth as a bubble. The gum comes in many different colors and flavors. As an employee of Fleer Chewing Gum Company Walter would play around with gum recip...
Audion
Lee De Forest invented the Audion, a forerunner of the triode, which is an amplifying vacuum tube. The grid controls the filament which sends the current from the filament. The Audion can detect radio signals by applying a small amount of power to the ...
Bathysphere
A bathysphere, designed John H. J. Butler in 1928, is an un-powered deep-sea submersible that is lowered into the ocean on a cable. Watson Stillman Hydraulic Machinery Company handled the casting of the steel sphere. The first version was too heavy but...
Telautograph
The telautograph transmists electrical impulses recorded by potentiometers at the sending station to servomechanismas attached to a pen at the receiving station. This machine is the precursor to the modern fax machine. It is the first device to transmi...
Teddy Bear
The teddy bear is a toy bear usually stuffed with soft, white cotton and having soft fur. Often it is used to entertain children and has become an enduring form of stuffed animals in many countries. The bears come in various styles and many have bec...
Spectroheliograph
The spectroheliograph captures a photographic image of the Sun at a single wavelength of light. The wavelength chosen usually coincides with a spectral wavelength of one of the chemical elements present in the Sun. George Ellery Hale and Henri-Alex...
Mercury arc Valve
A mercury arc valve converts high-voltage or high-current alternating current into direct current. It is an electrical rectifier often used to provide power for industrial motors, electric railways, streetcars, and electric locomotives. Peter Coope...
Kinetoscope
The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture device although not a movie projector. It is designed to be viewed by an individual through a window of a cabinet housing its components. It works by creating the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of p...
Wiki
A wiki is simply a website that allows the users to create and edit any number of interlinked web pages through a simplified markup language. They are often powered with wiki software and used to collaborative wiki websites, power community websites, f...
Bolometer
The bolometer, invented in 1878 by Samuel Pierpont Langley, measures the energy of incident electromagnetic radiation. It consists of an absorptive element connected to a heat sink through a thermal link. The absortive element raises its temperature ab...
Photographic Film
Photographic film is a sheet of plastic coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts that when exposed to light it forms a visible image. Through film developing, a chemical process applied to the film, a visible image is crea...
QWERTY
QWERTY is a common modern-day keyboard layout. The design is based on Christopher Latham Sholes design for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter which he sold to Remington in the same year. The use and adoption of the QWERTY keyboard is one of the most imp...
Paper Clip
A paper clip is a thin wire in a looped shape that uses elasticity and strength of its construction materials to compress and hold pieces of paper together. Other types of clips use a two piece clamping system. Recent innovations are multi-colored plas...
Mimeograph
The stencil duplicator works by forcing ink through a stencil onto paper. Also called mimeographs they were often used for print short-run office work, classroom materials, and church bulletins. They eventually were supplanted by photocopying and cheap...
Gas Mask
A gas mask is designed to go over the face to protect the wearer from inhaling "airborne pollutants". The mask seals the nose and mouth and many times covers other soft tissues of the face. Some have respirators. Most gas masks provide protection from ...
Electric Chair
Execution by electrocution, started in the United States, is an execution method in which the person being killed is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the body. Although its use is in decline the e...
Clothespins
The clothespin is a fastener designed to hang clothes up for drying, usually on a clothes line, although there are many different designs. These clothespin are manufactured very cheaply by creating two interlocking plastic or wooden prongs, in between ...
Scissors
Scissors, consisting of a pair of metal blades connected so that the sharp edges slide together, are hand-operated cutting instruments. They are used to cut various materials including paper, hair, food, plastic, rope, and much more. They come in a wid...
Morse Code
Morse code is a form of textual transmission as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that are interpreted by a skilled listener. International Morse Code encodes the Roman alphabet, Arabic numerals, and a small set of punctuation as standardized...
Lightning Rod
A lightning rod is a metal conductor mounted on the top of a building and connected through a wire to the ground to protect the building from lightning. The rod should conduct the electricity from a lightning strike down through the wire instead of pas...
Compass
The compass is a tool that helps the user navigate using the Earth's magnetic poles by using a magnetized pointer that reacts to magnetic fields. Since a compass can be used to calculate a heading it quickly improved the safety and efficiency of travel...
Rubik's Cube
The Rubik's Cube, invented by Erno Rubik, is a 3-D mechanical puzzle. In 1980 it was sold by Ideal Toys after winning the German Game of the Year special award. By January 2009 the puzzle had sold 350 million units making it the worlds top-selling puzz...
Artificial Heart
The artificial heart, a mechanical heart replacement, is typically used in order to bridge the time to heart transplant or to replace the heart in case a transplant is impossible. Often ventricular assist devices are confused with mechanical hearts bec...
Compact Disc
A Compact Disc, or CD, is an optical disc used to store digital data although it was originally developed to store sound recordings exclusively. Audio CDs have been available commercially since October 1982 and were popular until around 2010 when other...
Videocassette Recorder
The videocassette recorder, or VCR, is a type of tape recorder that uses removable videotape cassettes containing magnetic tape to record audio and video. The VCR is different from the VTR since the VTR can be reel-to-reel devices that require hand-thr...
Magnavox Odyssey
The Magnavox Odyssey, predating the Atari pong, was the world's first home video game console. It was released in 1972. Designed by Ralph Baer, the Odyssey prototype was called the Brown Box and is now in the Smithsonian Institute National Museum. It w...
Velcro
Velcro is a brand name, two layered system of fabric hook-and-loop fasteners. There is a "hook" side, which is a piece of fabric covered with tiny hooks, and a "loop" side, which is covered with even smaller and "hairier" loops. Pressing the two sides...
Liquid Paper
Liquid Paper, a brand of the Newell Rubbermaid Company, is a type of correction fluid used to fix typewriting in the past and now handwriting mistakes. Bette Nesmith Graham created the first correction fluid in 1951. Since she worked as a typist she ma...
Slinky
The slinky consists of a helical spring that stretches and can bounce up and down. The spring can travel down stairs as it stretches and re-forms itself with the aid of gravity and momentum. Invented by Richard James in 1940's the slinky was demonstrat...
Nylon
Nylon, a synthetic polymer, was first produced by Wallace Carothers in 1935. It is one of the most commonly used polymers. The thermoplastic, silky material was first used in a nylon-bristled toothbrush, then women's stockings. Nylon was made of rep...
Radio Telescope
Radio telescopes, used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes, are a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy. They operate on the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum where they detect radi...
Aerosol Spray
Aerosol spray is a dispensing system that creates an aerosol mist of liquid particles. The liquid is usually contained in a bottle under liquid pressure that is released when the valve is opened. As the gas in the can expands to drive out the liquid so...
Seismometer
The Seismometer is an instrument designed to measure the motions of the ground. This includes seismic waves generated by earthquakes, nuclear explosions, and other seismic sources. Records of these activities allow seismologists to map the interior of ...
Remote Control
A remote control is an electronic device that can operate another piece of electronic equipment wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance. Although it goes by many names, it is most commonly called the remote. They are usually small wireless h...
Cellophane
Cellophane, made of regenerated cellulose, is a thin, transparent sheet with low permeability to air, oils, greases, and bacteria. In many countries it is a registered trademark of Innovia Films Ltd. Cellulose from most sources is dissolved in alkali a...
Vitascope
Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat created the Vitascope, an early film projector, in 1895. They demonstrated the Vitascope at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, they called it the Phantoscope. Armat and Jenkins fought over the rights to th...
Zipper
A zipper is a device that temporarily joins two edges of fabric. It is used in clothing, luggage and other bags, sporting goods, camping gear, and other daily use items. The edges are fixed with tens to hundreds of specially shaped metal or plastic ...
Metal Detector
A metal detector is a device that finds metal that may not be visible. The basic metal detector is composed of an oscillator producing an alternating current that passes through the coil producing an alternating magnetic field. If electrically conducti...
Safety Razor
A safety razor, designed to protect the user from serious injury, is a razor where the facial skin is protected from all but the very edge of the blade. Prior to using a safety razor, most men used a straight razor. These razors, although still availab...
Roll Film
Roll film is any type of spool-wound photographic film. The film is protected from white light exposure by a paper backing as opposed to film which is protected by being wound forward in a cartridge. It was originally referred to as "cartridge" film du...
Telephone
The telephone is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sound generally the human voice. The phone's basic function is to allow people who are separated by large distances to talk with each other. The telephone is used across the world...
Stapler
Staplers, used widely in government, business, offices, and schools, are mechanical devices that join sheets of paper by driving a metal staple through the paper. The first stapler was created for King Louis XV. Each staple was inscribed with the insig...
Cathode Ray Tube
The Cathode Ray Tube, which has internal or external means to accelerate and deflect electron beams, is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen. The electron beams that are deflected are used to create images in the form of li...
Pasteurization
Pasteurization, used to slow microbial growth in food, is a process of heating food or liquid to a specific temperature for a definite length of time and then cooling immediately. Louis Pasteur was the creator of the process and completed his first tes...
Dynamite
Dynamite, invented by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel in 1867, is an explosive that harnesses the potential of nitroglycerin to explode. Normally it is sold in an 8 inch long stick and weighs about .6 pounds although other sizes do exist. TNT is usually t...
Incandescent Light Bulb
The incandescent light bulb provides a source of electric light through incandescence. The bulb works by passing current through a filament which heats to a temperature that produces light. The glass bulb that contains the filament prevents oxidation o...
Mason Jar
A Mason jar, invented by Rick Mason in 1858, is a glass jar used in canning to preserve food. Ball Corp. manufactured the jars early on and the name ball jar was also applied to the jars. In mass-production they have been replaced by other methods; how...
Gyroscope
A gyroscope uses the principles of conservation and angular momentum to measure and maintain orientation. The mechanical gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation. The gyroscope's high rate of spin allows for larg...
Bunsen Burner
A Bunsen burner produces a single open gas flame; it is commonly found in labs - used for heating, sterilization, and combustion. Robert Bunsen, in 1852, was hired at the University of Heidelberg and promised a new laboratory building. Heidelberg had j...
Tuning Fork
A tuning fork, formed of a two-pronged fork, is an acoustic resonator with prongs formed from a U-shaped bar of elastic metal. When struck against a surface it resonates at a specific constant pitch emitting a pure musical tone after waiting a moment f...
Thermostat
A thermostat regulates the temperature of a system and keeps the system's temperature at desired setpoint temperature. The device does this by turning heating and cooling devices on and off and regulating air flow of a heat transfer fluid as needed. Th...
Telescope
A telescope, designed to aid the observation of remote objects, collects some form of electromagnetic radiation (such as visible light). The Netherlands developed the first known practical telescope in the 17th century. The term "telescope" was termed ...
Stethoscope
The stethoscope is an acoustic medical device used for listening the internal sounds of the body. It can be used to listen to lung, heart, and intestines as well as blood flow in the arteries. With a sphygmomanometer it can be used to measure blood pre...
Safety Pin
A safety pin, a variation of the regular pin, is a simple fastening device which includes a simple spring mechanism and a clasp. The clasp covers the end of the pin to protect the user as well as forms a closed loop fastening the pin to whatever it is ...
Kaleidoscope
A kaleidoscope, a tube of mirrors containing looks colored objects such as bead and pebbles, is used by the viewer looking in one end while light enters the other end. Sir David Brewster invented the Kaleidoscope and also coined the term. The term tran...
Gas Stove
A gas stove is a cooking device which uses natural gas, propane, butane, Liquefied petroleum gas or other flammable gas as a fuel source. Since the gas pipe network was slow to develop, the success of the gas stove on a commercial level took some ti...
Electromagnet
An electromagnet, a magnet whose magnetic field is produced by the flow of electric current, works until the electric current ceases. The magnetic field in a simple electromagnet is created by a wire passing through it with an electric current. The str...
Braille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write. It was devised in 1821 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. The Braille characters are made up of six dot positions arranged in a rectangle containing two columns of ...
Bifocals
Bifocals are eyeglasses, commonly prescribed for presbyopia, with two distinct optical powers. Although there are arguments against him, Benjamin Franklin is generally credited with the invention of bifocals. After a correspondence between George W...
Barometer
A barometer is an instrument that measures atmospheric pressure. The barometer measures pressure exerted by the atmosphere using water, air, or mercury. Through measuring the pressure one can forecast short term weather changes. Evangelista Torrice...
Adding Machine
An adding machine, a type of calculator, is specialized for bookkeeping calculations. Calculating machines in the US are built to read in dollars and cents and were commonly found in offices. However, starting around 1985, computers started to replace ...
Toothbrush
The toothbrush, consisting of a head of tightly clustered bristles mounted on a handle, is a tool used to clean the teeth and gums. The long handle allows for cleaning of hard-to-reach areas of the mouth. Usually toothpaste is used with the toothbrush ...
Planisphere
A planisphere is a star chart analog, adjustable to display the visible stars for any time or and date, consisting of two adjustable disks that rotate on a common pivot. The Planisphere was pre-dated by the astrolabe; however, the planisphere was first...
Pencil
A pencil, containing a solid pigment core within a protective casing, is a common writing implement or art medium. Having a case keeps the pigment from breaking as well as from marking the user's hand. Pencils differ from pens because they leave mar...
Magnifying Glass
A magnifying glass is a convex lens, usually mounted in a frame with a handle, which is used to produce a magnified image of an object. The glass works by creating a magnified virtual image of an object behind the lens. However, the distance between th...
Fountain pen
Unlike its predecessor, the dip pen, the fountain pen holds its ink in a internal reservoir which is drawn through a feed to the nib by way of gravity and capillary action. Due to its way of operating the fountain pen requires little to no pressure to ...
Astronomical Clock
An astronomical clock is a clock with special mechanisms and dials to display astronomical information. This information can include everything from the relative position of the sun and the moon to major planets to zodiacal constellations. The term...