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Looking at the world with fresh eyes is the hallmark of a genius inventor - being open to endless possibilities for creation. The accomplished people on this list worked to change society by finding ways to better heal, cure, and ease the burden of everyday life, through new ideas and technology.
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Glean some inspiration from these twentieth century genius inventors who changed the world for the better through hard work, trial and error, and open minds.
1. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” - Benjamin Franklin
One of the United States’ Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin had a penchant for electricity and recognizing the electrical force in lightning, created a lightning rod that would protect peoples’ homes from damage. He also invented bifocal glasses and the Franklin stove – a metal lined fireplace.
2. "Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.” - George Washington Carver
Born into slavery, the American botanist and inventor revolutionized agriculture by inventing new uses for such crops as peanuts and soybean like adhesives, bleach, buttermilk, ink, shoe polish, synthetic rubber, pavement and more.
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3. “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” - Thomas Edison
This American inventor was quite prolific, and held over 1,093 US patents in his name. He is best known for inventing the electric light bulb in addition to the phonograph (precursor to the record player), which was a machine that would record a spoken voice and play it back, and the motion picture camera called the Kinetoscope.
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4. “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” - Alexander Graham Bell
The Scottish-born teacher, scientist, inventor and engineer changed how people communicate, as he is credited with inventing the first telephone. Bell also dedicated his life to working with the deaf and founded the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
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5. “All creative people want to do the unexpected.” - Hedy Lamarr
Known as a leading lady film star, this Austrian actress became a pioneer in the field of wireless communications when she co-developed the Secret Communications System to combat Nazis in WWII. The technology manipulated radio frequencies at irregular intervals between transmission and reception. Only put into use in the 1960s by the US Army, her invention paved the way to wireless technology utilized today by cell networks, Bluetooth devices and WIFI.
6. “If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance.”- Orville and Wilbur Wright
The ambitious bike-shop owners, affectionately known as the Wright brothers, set their sights on the sky. In 1903 they created the first airplane with aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible, jumpstarting the commercial aviation industry.
7. “Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.” – Louis Pasteur
The French chemist and microbiologist invented pasteurization, the process that prevents food spoilage in milk, beer and wine. He also was one of the pioneers of the Germ Theory of disease, which states that some diseases are caused by microorganisms, helping him create the first vaccine for rabies.
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