20th Century Inventions 1926 - 1950

1926

Robert H. Goddard invents liquid-fueled rockets.

1927

Eduard Haas III invents PEZ candy. JWA Morrison invents the first quartz crystal watch. Philo Taylor Farnsworth invents a complete electronic TV system. Technicolor invented. Erik Rotheim patents an aerosol can. Warren Marrison developed the first quartz clock.

1928

Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. Bubble gum invented by Walter E. Diemer. Jacob Schick patented the electric shaver.

1929

American, Paul Galvin invents the car radio. Yo-Yo re-invented as an American fad.

1930

Scotch tape patented by 3M engineer, Richard G. Drew. The frozen food process patented by Clarence Birdseye. Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents neoprene. The "differential analyzer", or analog computer invented by Vannevar Bush at MIT in Boston. Frank Whittle and Dr Hans von Ohain both invent a jet engine. 1931

Harold Edgerton invented stop-action photography. Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope.

1932

Polaroid photography invented by Edwin Herbert Land. The zoom lens and the light meter invented. Carl C. Magee invents the first parking meter. Karl Jansky invents the radio telescope.

1933

Frequency modulation (FM radio) invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong. Stereo records invented.

1934

Englishmen, Percy Shaw invents cat eyes or roads reflectors. Charles Darrow claims he invented the game Monopoly. Joseph Begun invents the first tape recorder for broadcasting - first magnetic recording.

1935

Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents nylon ( polymer 6.6.) The first canned beer made. Robert Watson-Watt patented radar.

1936

Bell Labs invents the voice recognition machine.

1937

Chester F. Carlson invents the photocopier. The first jet engine is built.

1938

The ballpoint pen invented by Ladislo Biro. Strobe lighting invented. Roy J. Plunkett invented tetrafluoroethylene polymers or Teflon. Nescafe or freeze-dried coffee invented. The first working turboprop engine.

1939

Igor Sikorsky invents the first successful helicopter. The electron microscope invented.

1940

Peter Goldmark invents modern color television system. Karl Pabst invents the jeep.

1941

Konrad Zuse's Z3, the first computer controlled by software. Aerosol spray cans invented by American inventors, Lyle David Goodloe and W.N. Sullivan. Enrico Fermi invents the neutronic reactor.

1942

John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built the first electronic digital computer. Max Mueller designs a turboprop engine.

1943

Synthetic rubber invented. Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD.

1944

The kidney dialysis machine invented by Willem Kolff. Synthetic cortisone invented by Percy Lavon Julian.

1945

The atomic bomb invented.

1946

The microwave oven invented by Percy Spencer.

1947

British/Hungarian scientist, Dennis Gabor, developed the theory of holography. Mobile phones first invented. Although cell phones were not sold commercially until 1983, AT&T came up with the idea way back. Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invent the transistor. Earl Silas Tupper patented the Tupperware seal.

1948

The Frisbee® invented by Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni. Velcro ® invented by George de Mestral. Robert Hope-Jones invented the Wurlitzer jukebox.

1949

Cake mix invented.

1950

The first credit card (Diners) invented by Ralph Schneider.

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa122299a.htm