Orville and Wilbur Wright

Orville was at the controls of the world’s first powered flight while Wilbur observed (1903).

John Ambrose Fleming

Invented the diode - a vital part of radios and televisions (1904)

Christian Hulsmeyer

The first radar system used in shipping (1904)

Leo Baekeland

Inventor of plastic (1905)

Reginald Fessenden

Invented radio broadcasting (1906)

Mary Phelps Jacob

Invented the bra (1913)

Gidoen Sundback

Invented the zip (1913)

John Thompson

Invented the sub-machine gun (1920)

Frederick Banting / Charles Best

Isolated insulin (1921)

Karel Capek

Invented the first robot (1921)

Clarence Birdseye

Started the idea of frozen food (1924)

John Logie Baird

Invented the television - its first public demonstration was at Selfridges in London (1925)

Robert Goddard

Invented liquid fuel rocket (1926)

Alexander Fleming

Discovered penicillin and paved the way for antibiotics (1928)

Frank Whittle

The jet engine (1930)

Percy Shaw

Inventor of the cats eyes - a major factor in improved road safety (1934)

Laszlo Jose Biro

Invented the ball point pen (1938)

Igor Sikorsky

Inventor of the modern helicopter (1939)

Enrico Fermi

Built the first nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago (1942)

Willem Kolff

Invented the kidney dialysis machine (1944)

Percy LeBaron Spencer

Invented the microwave oven (1946)

George deMestral

Invented velcro (1948)

Carl Djerassi

Developed the contraceptive pill (1951)

Sir Christopher Cockerell

Invented the hovercraft (1955)

Jonas Salk

Made the vaccine for polio (1955)

Jack Kilby

Made the first microchip - the start of miniaturisation of technology (1958)

Wilson Greatbatch

Invented the first heart pacemaker (1960)

Douglas Engelbart

Invented the computer mouse (1964)

Stephanie Kwolek

Invented kevlar (1966)

Jack Kilby, Jerry Merryman and James von Tassel

The portable calculator (1967)

George Gray

Invented the LCD and LED (1970)

Herbert Boyer

Pioneer of genetic engineering (1973)

Akio Morita

Inventor of the personal stereo (1979)

Tim Berners-Lee

Creator of the World Wide Web (1989)

Ian Wilmut

Headed team that produced the first cloned sheep - Dolly (1997)