# The most important inventors in history

The inventors who appear most in popular-science lists, with the invention they are remembered for and its date. Plus a few Spanish inventors who usually get left out.

- 170 votes · 21 items
- Oct 9, 2024 · sofia_noscope
- https://even.best/en/l/1099/the-most-important-inventors-in-history

## Top 20

1. **Johannes Gutenberg** (17 · ▲18 ▼1) — Germany, c. 1400-1468. Printing with movable type, around 1440.
2. **Thomas Edison** (13 · ▲14 ▼1) — United States, 1847-1931. Over 1,000 patents: the practical light bulb, the phonograph and the kinetoscope.
3. **Nikola Tesla** (13 · ▲14 ▼1) — Serbia and the US, 1856-1943. Alternating current and the induction motor.
4. **Wright brothers** (12 · ▲13 ▼1) — US. The first controlled powered flight, at Kitty Hawk in 1903.
5. **Alexander Graham Bell** (8 · ▲9 ▼1) — Scotland and the US, 1847-1922. Patented the telephone in 1876.
6. **Karl Benz** (6 · ▲8 ▼2) — Germany, 1844-1929. The first petrol-engined car, patented in 1886.
7. **James Watt** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — Scotland, 1736-1819. The steam engine with a separate condenser (1769), the engine of the Industrial Revolution.
8. **Samuel Morse** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — US, 1791-1872. The electric telegraph and Morse code.
9. **Leonardo da Vinci** (5 · ▲7 ▼2) — Italy, 1452-1519. Flying machines and devices drawn centuries before they could be built.
10. **Isaac Peral** (5 · ▲7 ▼2) — Spain, 1851-1895. The Peral electric submarine, launched in 1888.
11. **Benjamin Franklin** (4 · ▲6 ▼2) — US, 1706-1790. The lightning rod and bifocal glasses.
12. **Guglielmo Marconi** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Italy, 1874-1937. Wireless telegraphy; Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909.
13. **George Stephenson** (3 · ▲5 ▼2) — England, 1781-1848. The Rocket locomotive (1829) and the first public railway.
14. **Alfred Nobel** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Sweden, 1833-1896. Dynamite (1867); his fortune founded the Nobel Prizes.
15. **Lumière brothers** (2 · ▲4 ▼2) — France. The cinématographe and the first public film screening, in Paris in 1895.
16. **Hedy Lamarr** (2 · ▲4 ▼2) — Austria and the US, 1914-2000. Actress and co-inventor of frequency hopping, a basis of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
17. **Tim Berners-Lee** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — UK, born 1955. Invented the World Wide Web at CERN in 1989.
18. **Juan de la Cierva** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Spain, 1895-1936. The autogyro, which first flew in 1923.
19. **Louis Braille** (-1 · ▲2 ▼3) — France, 1809-1852. The reading system for the blind, which he devised at 15.
20. **Leonardo Torres Quevedo** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Spain, 1852-1936. The Telekino, one of the first remote controls, and El Ajedrecista chess automaton.
21. **Narcís Monturiol** (-3 · ▲1 ▼4) — Spain, 1819-1885. The Ictíneo, one of the first submarines, in 1859.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.