16 People Whose Works Are Much More Famous Than They Are

Edison invented the light bulb.

Everyone knows it, even the kid in kindergarten. But ask them who invented that velcro strap on their sandals, and no one knows.

Yes, the light bulb was an important invention, but there have been many more inventions that have impacted us in a very large way. Their inventors haven’t gained fame because these items seem trivial and so common, we do not stop and wonder when we come across one.

But when you do look at them and how simple they really are, you realize the ingenuity behind them, and the person who created them.

1. Garrett Morgan, the man who made traffic a little less annoying and exponentially less lethal

Morgan set up the first street traffic light after being bothered by road accidents. With the populations ever growing in the future and with an exponential addition of cars and bikes on the roads, his inventions will still help us long into the future.

 

2. Georges de Mestral, the reason we can all wear sandals easily

de Mestral invented the velcro after he found stubborn thistles on his dog’s fur. He observed that the thistles had hook-like leaves that didn’t let go easily. As a result, we got velcro, which is as widespread as a zipper.

 

3. William Addis, the reason we have clean teeth

People used pieces of rag, fingers and twigs of trees before Addis came up with the toothbrush. People used charcoal on a body part that is supposed to be white.

Thank god for Addis, we don’t have to use pieces of cloth to clean our teeth.

 

4. Willis Carrier, the reason we keep out cool in the face of harsh summers

Carrier made the first air conditioner with a stable coolant. And as a result, gave us a gadget that keeps us cool every summer. And what with the global warming and all, his invention will be crucial to all humans on this planet.

 

5. Lazlo Biro, the reason we write so smoothly

Lazlo Biro first used printer ink in his fountain pen, but it didn’t work. So he invented the world’s first ball point pen. He revolutionized writing until the stylus came along.

 

6. Douglas Engelbart who gave us the best way to communicate with our computers

He came up with the design of the first computer mouse in 1968. More than one billion computer mice have been sold since then.

 

7. Ron Klein, the reason behind almost all financial transactions today

Ron Klein invented the magnetic strip that enables us to make cashless transactions multiple times in a day. He may well be the reason behind the extinction of paper money.

 

8. Harvey Ball, the man who made texting more interesting

Harvey ball created the first emoticon – the smiley. He could have raked in millions, but sadly, he never copyrighted his work, because he didn’t feel that it would be so popular.

 

9. Nick Holonyak the reason why tube lights and light bulbs will be extinct

Mr. Holonyak predicted way back in 1962 that his invention, the LED bulb will replace all incandescent bulbs in the future.

As we know now, he may well be true.

 

10. Karlheinz Brandenburg the reason we can listen to pirated music

Brandenburg invented the Mp3 file format that made music so easily transferable everywhere electronically.

 

11. Gideon Sundback, the reason why men can pee without pulling their pants down

Sundback invented the zipper that became mainstream on every trouser that was created for men. It also became standard on bags too.

 

12. Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel, the man behind perfect music

Winkel invented the first functional metronome. The metronome is used to count a period in music. This device is basically the reason we call a particular music “slow” and “fast”.

 

13. Joseph Friedman, the reason we can drink without sprained necks

Joseph Friedman came up with the idea of bendable straws. He thought of this when he was sitting in an eatery and his daughter had difficulty in drinking the drink in front of her.

 

14. James Goodfellow, the reason we can withdraw cash anywhere, at any time

Mr. Goodfellow came up with the idea of a PIN code, which would let people withdraw cash from machines, that are called ATM machines today.

 

15. Ajay Bhatt – the inventor of USB. Enough Said.

As we said – enough said.

 

16. Andy Serkis, not really an inventor, but made memorable characters

Not really an inventor, but not a lot of people know that he is the face behind Gollum, King Kong, Caeser in Dawn of The Planet Of the Apes, and Supreme Leader Snoke in the latest Star Wars movie.

Sometimes our work lives on way after we pass on, and this work can impact other people in ways we cannot really predict. Even if we do not really think it is significant.

As General Maximus said

“What we do today, echoes in eternity.”

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