Museum of the Human Inventions

The inventors

The people behind the ideas.

Inventors rarely work alone. This archive names the people the historical record supports, and notes where credit is shared, contested or lost.

The archive

Inventors and contributors

Listed by surname. Each entry records what the person is documented to have done, where the record is uncertain, and which exhibitions draw on their work.

The museum does not display portraits unless a verified likeness is available.

Field

Showing 19 of 19 inventors and contributors

  1. Charles Babbage

    1791 – 1871

    Computing

    Role
    Mathematician and engineer
    Origin
    London, England

    Designed the Difference Engine and the programmable Analytical Engine, neither completed in his lifetime.

    Exhibitions

  2. Alexander Graham Bell

    1847 – 1922

    Communication

    Role
    Teacher of the deaf, inventor
    Origin
    Edinburgh, Scotland; later Boston

    Received the first U.S. telephone patent in 1876 and founded the company that became AT&T.

    Exhibitions

    On attribution

    Priority was contested by Elisha Gray; earlier work by Antonio Meucci and Philipp Reis is also recognised.

  3. Tim Berners-Lee

    b. 1955

    Communication

    Role
    Computer scientist
    Origin
    London, England; CERN, Switzerland

    Proposed the World Wide Web in 1989 and built the first browser and server at CERN.

    Exhibitions

  4. Donald Davies

    1924 – 2000

    Communication

    Role
    Computer scientist, National Physical Laboratory
    Origin
    Wales and London, England

    Devised packet switching in the mid-1960s and named it; his NPL network influenced the design of ARPANET.

    Exhibitions

  5. Thomas Edison

    1847 – 1931

    Energy & industry

    Role
    Inventor, businessman
    Origin
    Ohio and New Jersey, United States

    Built the Menlo Park laboratory, a model of organised industrial research, and led development of a commercial electric lighting system.

    Exhibitions

    On attribution

    Joseph Swan independently made a practical lamp in Britain.

  6. Elisha Gray

    1835 – 1901

    Communication

    Role
    Electrical engineer
    Origin
    Ohio, United States

    Filed a caveat for a telephone on the same day as Bell’s application and co-founded the company that became Western Electric.

    Exhibitions

  7. Johannes Gutenberg

    c. 1400 – 1468

    Print & knowledge

    Role
    Goldsmith, printer
    Origin
    Mainz, Holy Roman Empire

    Developed the first complete system of movable-type printing in Europe, and printed the 42-line Bible around 1455. Few personal documents survive.

    Exhibitions

    On attribution

    Movable type had earlier Chinese and Korean precedents.

  8. Robert Hooke

    1635 – 1703

    Science & medicine

    Role
    Experimenter, curator of experiments at the Royal Society
    Origin
    England

    Published Micrographia (1665), the first best-selling book of microscopy, and coined the biological term “cell”.

    Exhibitions

  9. Grace Hopper

    1906 – 1992

    Computing

    Role
    Mathematician, U.S. Navy rear admiral
    Origin
    New York, United States

    Developed one of the first compilers in 1952 and advocated programming in human-readable language, influencing COBOL.

    Exhibitions

  10. Vint Cerf & Bob Kahn

    b. 1943 / b. 1938

    Communication

    Role
    Network engineers
    Origin
    United States

    Designed the TCP/IP protocols from 1974, the shared language of the Internet.

    Exhibitions

  11. Shen Kuo

    1031 – 1095

    Science & medicine

    Role
    Scholar, statesman, scientist
    Origin
    Song-dynasty China

    In Dream Pool Essays he described the magnetised needle compass, magnetic declination, and Bi Sheng’s movable type.

    Exhibitions

  12. Lewis Latimer

    1848 – 1928

    Energy & industry

    Role
    Draftsman, inventor, patent expert
    Origin
    Massachusetts and New York, United States

    Patented an improved method of making carbon filaments (1881) and helped draft the patent for Bell’s telephone.

    Exhibitions

  13. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

    1632 – 1723

    Science & medicine

    Role
    Draper and microscopist
    Origin
    Delft, Dutch Republic

    Ground his own lenses and reported single-celled organisms and bacteria to the Royal Society from the 1670s.

    Exhibitions

  14. Ada Lovelace

    1815 – 1852

    Computing

    Role
    Mathematician and writer
    Origin
    London, England

    Her 1843 notes on the Analytical Engine include a worked method for calculating Bernoulli numbers and reflections on what such machines might do.

    Exhibitions

  15. Thomas Newcomen

    1664 – 1729

    Energy & industry

    Role
    Ironmonger and engine builder
    Origin
    Dartmouth, England

    Built the first successful piston steam engine in 1712, used to drain mines.

    Exhibitions

  16. Joseph Swan

    1828 – 1914

    Energy & industry

    Role
    Chemist and physicist
    Origin
    Sunderland and Newcastle, England

    Developed an incandescent lamp with a carbon filament and demonstrated it in 1878–79.

    Exhibitions

  17. Alan Turing

    1912 – 1954

    Computing

    Role
    Mathematician, codebreaker
    Origin
    London, England

    Described the universal computing machine in 1936 and worked on codebreaking at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.

    Exhibitions

  18. James Watt

    1736 – 1819

    Energy & industry

    Role
    Instrument maker and engineer
    Origin
    Greenock, Scotland

    Added a separate condenser to the steam engine, then developed rotary motion with Matthew Boulton.

    Exhibitions

  19. Wilbur & Orville Wright

    1867 – 1912 / 1871 – 1948

    Flight

    Role
    Bicycle makers, aeronautical engineers
    Origin
    Dayton, Ohio, United States

    Made the first controlled, powered, sustained flights in 1903 after years of experiment with kites, gliders and a wind tunnel.

    Exhibitions

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