The 23 Greatest American Innovators of All Time

Lightning rods and light bulbs share a bracket with compilers, airplanes and smartphones. Workshop tinkerers face off against boardroom visionaries across three centuries.

1. 1
   Thomas Edison

   Prolific inventor behind the practical light bulb, the phonograph and the first industrial research lab.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Willis Carrier

   Engineer who invented modern air conditioning in 1902.
   833pts
3. 3
   Eli Whitney

   Inventor of the cotton gin and an early champion of interchangeable parts.
   833pts
4. 4
   Walt Disney

   Animation pioneer who made the first feature-length cel-animated film and invented the modern theme park.
   625pts
5. 5
   George Washington Carver

   Agricultural scientist who developed hundreds of uses for peanuts and promoted crop rotation.
   625pts
6. 6
   Robert Fulton

   Engineer who built the first commercially successful steamboat, the Clermont.
   625pts
7. 7
   Steve Jobs

   Apple co-founder who brought the personal computer, the iPod and the iPhone to the mass market.
   566pts
8. 8
   Nikola Tesla

   Serbian-American engineer whose alternating-current system powers the modern electric grid.
   566pts
9. 9
   Samuel Morse

   Painter turned inventor who co-developed the electric telegraph and Morse code.
   500pts
10. 10
    Grace Hopper

    Navy rear admiral and computer scientist who built the first compiler and shaped COBOL.
    423pts
11. 11
    Henry Ford

    Industrialist who made the car affordable with the Model T and the moving assembly line.
    423pts
12. 12
    George Westinghouse

    Inventor of the railway air brake who backed alternating current against Edison.
    333pts
13. 13
    George Eastman

    Kodak founder who brought roll film and the simple box camera to the public.
    333pts
14. 14
    Elon Musk

    Entrepreneur behind Tesla's mass-market electric cars and SpaceX's reusable rockets.
    333pts
15. 15
    Steve Wozniak

    Apple co-founder who single-handedly designed the Apple I and Apple II computers.
    333pts
16. 16
    Bill Gates

    Microsoft co-founder whose software put a computer on nearly every desk.
    333pts
17. 17
    Benjamin Franklin

    Founding Father and scientist who invented the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove.
    333pts
18. 18
    Wright Brothers

    Orville and Wilbur Wright, who made the first powered, controlled airplane flight in 1903.
    333pts
19. 19
    Cyrus McCormick

    Inventor of the mechanical reaper that transformed grain farming.
    333pts
20. 20
    Edwin Land

    Polaroid co-founder who invented instant photography and polarizing filters.
    333pts
21. 21
    Hedy Lamarr

    Hollywood star who co-invented frequency-hopping technology later used in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
    227pts
22. 22
    Philo Farnsworth

    Inventor of the first fully electronic television system.
    227pts
23. 23
    Alexander Graham Bell

    Scottish-born American inventor credited with patenting the first practical telephone.
    0pts

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