| Tommy gun | 45 mm portable machine gun | 1920 | John Thompson | USA
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| Geothermal power plant | | 1921 | John D. Grant | USA
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| Zippo lighter | | 1932 | George Blaisdell | USA
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| Nuclear fission of heavy nuclei | uranium, thorium | 1938 | Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, Fritz Straussmann | Germany/Austria
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| Bazooka | anti-tank weapon | 1942 | Clarence Hickman, Edward Uhl, Leslie Skinner | USA
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| Napalm | incendiary weapon | 1942 | Louis Feiser, Harvard U. | USA
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| Nuclear fission chain reaction | | 1942 | Enrico Fermi, U of Chicago | USA
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| Assault rifle | | 1944 | Hugo Schmeisser | Germany
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| Microwave oven | not portable | 1945 | Percy L. Spencer | USA
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| Uranium, Little Boy, fission bomb | gun type mechanism, Manhattan project | 1945 | J. Robert Oppenheimer et al. | USA
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| Plutonium, Fat Man, fission bomb | implosion mechanism, Manhattan project | 1945 | J. Robert Oppenheimer et al. | USA
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| AK -47 | assault rifle | 1947 | Mikhail Kalashnikov | USSR
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| Nuclear power plant | fission electricity | 1951 | Walter Zinn | USA
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| Thermonuclear fusion bomb | nuclear fusion, Operation Ivy | 1952 | Edward Teller et al. | USA
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| Silicon solar cell | sunlight to electricity | 1953 | Gerald Pearson,Daryl Chapin, Calvin Fuller, Bell labs | USA
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| Uzi sub machine gun | | 1954 | Uziel Gal | Israel
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| LASER, semiconductor | light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation | 1957 | Jun-ichi Nishizawa | Japan
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| Ruby LASER | | 1960 | Theodore Maiman, Gordon Gould, Charles Hard Townes, Atrhur L. Schawlow | USA
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| LED | light emitting diode | 1962 | Nick Holonyak Jr. | USA
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| Lava lamp | | 1963 | Edward Craven Walker | USA
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| Carbon dioxide LASER | | 1964 | Kumar Patel, Bell labs | USA
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| Liquid crystal display | LCD | 1964 | George Heilmeier | USA
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| Portable microwave oven | countertop | 1967 | Amana | USA
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| LASER guided bomb | smart bomb | 1967 | US Air Force | USA
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| Light emitting diode watch | digital watch, LED display | 1972 | John M. Bergey | USA
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| Compact flourescent light bulb | more efficient light | 1976 | Edward E. Hammer, GE | USA
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| Neutron bomb | high radiation weapon | 1981 | Samual T. Cohen | USA
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| Scram jet engine | more powerful jet | 1981 | Ray Stalker | Australia
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| LASER pointer | presentation highlighter | 1982 | Theodore Harold Maiman, Gordon Gould | USA
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| OLED display | organic light emitting diode | 1987 | Stephen Van Slyke, Ching W. Tang | USA
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