100 Greatest Inventions of All Time

Top 100 Inventions

1. Control of fire, 35 prehistoric uses of fire, also including 33 direct and 34 indirect historical Top 100 inventions with fire, 250,000 BCE, Africa
2. Written language together with cuneiform on clay tablets, hieroglyphics on papyrus, beginning of history, 3500 BCE, Sumer, Mesopotamia, Egypt
3. Printing press together with movable type on paper, 100 AD, 1450, Cai Luan, Johannes Gutenberg, China/Germany
4. Domestication of 8 founding crops and rice: emmer wheat, eikorn wheat, peas, chick peas, flax, hulled barley, rye, and bitter vetch. 9000 BCE, Mesopotamia/China
5. Domestication of livestock, sheep, goats, cows, pigs. 10,000 BCE, Mesopotamia
6. Radio wave technology, instantaneous wireless data transfer, radio, 1895, Guglielmo Marconi, Italy
7. Computer 1822, Charles Babbage, UK
8. Wheel/axle together with horse domestication, 3500 BCE, Mesopotamia/Eurasia steppes
9. Sailboat together with wooden hull and oars, 3000 BCE, Mesopotamia, Egypt
10. Plow together with domesticated oxen, 5000-3500 BCE, Mesopotamia
11. Smelting bronze and iron, 5000-1800 BCE, Mesopotamia/Turkey
12. Electricity, insulated copper wire, light bulb filament, 1824, 1877, Thomas Alva Edison, USA
13. Hindu-Arabic numbers, negatives, zero, fractions, decimals, 820 AD, India/Middle East
14. Hydraulic engineering, ditches, canals, dikes, canals, dams, aqueducts, wells, 3000 BCE, Mesopotamia, Egypt, India river
15. Telephone, instantaneous wired verbal data transmission, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell, USA
16. Steam engine together with locomotive, steamboat applications, 1719-1814, James Watt, George Stephenson, Robert Fulton, UK/USA
17. Automobile and gas internal combustion engine, 1876, Nicolaus Otto, Karl Benz, Germany
18. Vaccination, 1796, Edward Jenner, UK
19. Penicillin, 1928, Alexander Fleming, UK
20. Black gunpowder together with cannon, musket, rifle, pistol, 142-1450, Wei Boyang, China
21. Transistor together with integrated circuit 1947,1958, William Shockley, Jack Kilby, USA
22. Magnifying glass, mirrors, and lenses including: optical lenses, microscope, telescope. 1600, Hans Lippershey, Zacharias Jansen, Italy/Netherlands
23. Hypodermic syringe, all glass, Francis Rynd (1844), Alexander Wood, 1851, UK
24. Internet together with hypertext 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, CERN, UK
25. Sanitation engineering and oral rehydration therapy 2500 BCE, 1596, John Harrington, Indus River/UK
26. Airplane, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright, USA
27. Battery, 1800, Alessandro Volta, Italy
28. Steel and steel alloys, stainless/galvanized, 1850, 1913, Henry Bessimer, Harry Brearley, China/UK
29. Television, 1945, Philo Farnsworth, John Logie Baird, USA/UK
30. Nuclear fission power, 1945, Oppenheimer et al., USA
31. Mechanical clock, 725 AD, Yi Xing, China
32. Rocket together with artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, 1957, Werner von Braun, Sergei Korolev et al., Germany/USSR
33. Jet engine together with jet aircraft and jet boat U.K./Germany/New Zealand
34. Ceramics, stoneware, earthenware 25,000 BCE (14,000 BCE pottery China/Japan) Czechoslovakia
35. Alphabet, true alphabet together with vowels, 725 BCE, Greece
36. Photograph and camera, 1826, Nicephore Niepce, Johann Zahn, France
37. Motion pictures, motion picture camera, projector, and theater, 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumiere, France
38. Refrigerator, vapor compression, 1805, Oliver Evans, USA
39. LASER, 1958, 1960 Theodore Maiman, Gorden Gould, Charles Hard Townes, Arthur L. Schawlow, USA
40. Postal service, 50 AD, Caesar Augustus, Rome
41. Carpentry/wood working, 3000 BCE, Egypt
42. Woven fiber cloth, rope, silk, cotton, wool, flax, 20,000 BCE, Europe
43. Plastics technology, 1863, 1907, Alexander Parkes, John Wesley Hyatt, Leo Baekeland, UK/USA
44. Modern steam turbine, 1884, Charles Parsons, USA
45. LED, light emitting diode, 1962, Nick Holonyak, Jr., GE, USA
46. Nitrogen fixation, Haber-Bosch process, 1918, Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, Germany
47. Concrete and reinforced concrete, 6500 BCE, Nabatacea, Middle EastRobot, 1961, George C. Devol, USA
48. Computer mouse together with graphic user interface, Macintosh, 1984, Douglas Englehart, USA
49. Pasteurization together with germ theory 1863, Louis Pasteur, France
50. Air conditioning, 1902, Willis Carrier, USA
51. Blood, tissue, organ transplants, 1900, Karl Landsteiner, Austria
52. GPS Global Positioning System, 2000 Gladys West, Ivan Getting, Bradford Parkinson, Roger L. Easton, USA
53. Soap, and synthetic detergents, 2800 BCE, Sumer, Mesopotamia
54. Money, credit card/paper currency/coins, 600 BCE, 1946, John Biggins, Phoenicia, Tang Dynasty, USA/China
55. Search engine, Google, 1998, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, USA
56. Telegraph, Morse code, 1837, Samuel Morse, USA
57. Aluminum, 1825, Charles Martin Hall, USA
58. Fiber optics, 1953, Narinder Singh Kapany, UK
59. X-ray imaging, computed tomography, 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen, Germany
60. Tesla AC induction motor, 1887. Nikola Tesla, USA
61. News, later newspaper, Acta Diurna, 50 BCE, 1605, Rome/Germany
62. Saddle and later stirrups, 300 AD, China
63. New World crops, tomato, potato, beans, corn, peppers, 1500, Americas
64. Nail, 3400 BCE, Egypt
65. Screw, propellar, fan, 250 BCE, 1770, Archimedes, John Ericsson, Francis Pettit Smith, Greece/UK
66. Silicon photovoltaic cell, 1954, Daryl Chapin, Calvin Fuller, Gerald Pearson, USA
67. Opium domestication, 9000-3500 BCE, West and Central Europe
68. Email later text messaging, 1971, Ray Tomlinson, USA
69. Water turbine, 1849, James Francis, UK
70. Short range wireless radio data transfer, WiFi, Bluetooth, 2000,John O’Sullivan, Jaap Haartsen, Australia/Sweden
71. Compass, 1040, China
72. Fusion technology, 1956, Edward Teller, USA
73. Facebook, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, USA
74. Magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, 1973, Raymond Damadian, Paul Lauterbur, USA
75. Medical ultrasound/echocardiography , 1956, Ian Donald, Tom Brown, UK
76. Catheter surgery, minimally invasive, 1961, Werner Theodor Otto Forssmann, Germany
77. Oxy-acetylene torch welding, 1905, Edmond Fouche, Charles Picard, France
78. Safety bicycle, 1885, J.K. Starley, UK
79. Petroleum refining, 1840, James Miller Williams, Ontario, Canada
80. Amazon together with on line shopping, 1994, Jeff Bezos, USA
81. Magnetic tape data storage, 1951, Univac/IBM, USA
82. Metal wedge (simple machine), knife, sword, axe, chisel, 1800 BCE, Egypt
83. Bow and arrow, 70,000 BCE, Africa
84. Gears, 350 BCE, 50 AD, Archimedes, Hero of Alexandria, Greece/ Hellenic Egypt
85. Touchscreen, gorilla glass lithium silicate, 1975, 1982, George Samuel Hurst, USA
86. Robot, Unimate, George C. Devol, 1961, USA
87. Psychotropic medications, Prozac, Thorazine, lithium, 1951, Paul Charpentier, France
88. Sound recording, phonograph, 1876, Thomas Alva Edison, USA
89. Microwave oven, 1945, Percy Spencer, USA
90. Rivet, 1915, Charles Ward Hall, USA/UK
91. Fermentation of beer and wine, 7000 BCE-10,000 BCE, China/Mesopotamia
92. Latex, vulcanized rubber together with synthetic latex paint, 1500, 1844, Latin America, Charles Goodyear, USA
93. DNA splicing, gene therapy, GMO ‘s, CRISPR – Cas 9, 2001, Jennifer Doudna, USA
94. Container shipping, container ship, railroad, trucking, 1956, Malcolm McLean, USA
95. YouTube/video streaming, 2005, Jawed Karim, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, USA
96. Randomized controlled clinical trials, 1747, James Lind, UK
97. Fiber polymers, polyester, nylon, 1939, W.H. Caruthers, USA/UK
98. Julian/Gregorian calendar, 50 BCE, Julius Caesar, Pope Gregory XIII, Rome
99. Submarine, 1620, Cornelius Drebbel, Netherlands
100. Contraception, birth control pill, 1960, Gregory Goodwin Pincus, USA

** notable deletions from the list: Oral language could arguably be considered on the list of greatest inventions but the origins of spoken language predate the dawn of Homo sapiens in 250,000 BCE. Also, the invention of the industrial research lab could arguably be considered the greatest invention of the greatest inventor, Thomas Alva Edison. The research lab did not make the list due to the fact the lab is not a true invention and defies technology categorization.