Great inventions and inventors

• Leonardo da Vinci never built the inventions he designed.
• Air-filled tires were used on bicycles before they were used on motorcars.
• In 1894, Lord Kelvin predicted that radio had no future; he also predicted that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible.
• Music was sent down a telephone line for the first time in 1876, the year the phone was invented.
• The paperclip was invented by Norwegian Johann Vaaler.
• Joseph Niepce developed the world’s first photographic image in 1827.
• Optical fiber was invented in 1966 by two British scientists called Charles Kao and George Hockham working for the British company Standard Telecommunication.
• The first neon sign was made in 1923 for a Packard dealership.
  
• The videophone was invented by Bell Laboratories in 1927.
• The can opener was invented 48 years after cans were introduced.
• The first vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria in the first century. When a coin was dropped into a slot, its weight would pull a cork out of a spigot and the machine would dispense a trickle of holy water.
• The Monopoly game was invented by Charles Darrow in 1933. He sold the rights to George Parker in 1935, then aged 58. Parker invented more than 100 games, including Pit, Rook, Flinch, Risk and Clue.
• Traffic lights were used before the advent of the motorcar.
• Thomas Edison filed 1,093 patents, including those for the light bulb, electric railways and the movie camera. When he died in 1931, he held 34 patents for the telephone, 141 for batteries, 150 for the telegraph and 389 patents for electric light and power.
• One hour before Alexander Graham Bell registered his patent for the telephone in 1876, Elisha Gray patented his design. After years of litigation, the patent went to Bell.
• During the 1860s, George Leclanche developed the dry-cell battery, the basis for modern batteries.
• Thomas Edison filed 1,093 patents, including those for the light bulb, electric railways and the movie camera. When he died in 1931, he held 34 patents for the telephone, 141 for batteries, 150 for the telegraph and 389 patents for electric light and power
• In 1895 French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere demonstrated a projector system in Paris. In 1907 they screened the first public movie.
• In 1894 Thomas Edison and W K L Dickson introduced the first film camera.
• Queen Elizabeth of Britain sent her first email in 1976.
• The first electronic mail, or “email”, was sent in 1972 by Ray Tomlinson. It was also his idea to use the @ sign to separate the name of the user from the name of the computer.