Top 36 Inventor-Entrepreneurs of All Time

Having the idea is one job. Owning it, pricing it and keeping the factory open is another, and these sixteen were wildly uneven at the second one.

1. 1
   Nikola Tesla

   Tore up his AC royalty contract with Westinghouse and died owing money to a New York hotel.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Thomas Edison

   Built a research lab as a business, held 1,093 US patents and founded the company that became General Electric.
   898pts
3. 3
   Henry Ford

   Did not invent the car; invented the moving assembly line and the price point that put America on wheels.
   898pts
4. 4
   Isaac Singer

   Did not invent the sewing machine but invented hire purchase to sell it.
   659pts
5. 5
   John Deere

   A blacksmith whose self-scouring steel plough turned into a company still farming the Midwest.
   659pts
6. 6
   Alfred Nobel

   Ran a dynamite empire across twenty countries and spent the proceeds on a prize.
   571pts
7. 7
   George Westinghouse

   Made his first fortune from the railway air brake, then bet it all on alternating current.
   467pts
8. 8
   King C. Gillette

   Worked out that the money was in the blades, not the razor.
   467pts
9. 9
   Samuel Colt

   Built interchangeable-parts manufacturing and one of the first global arms brands.
   467pts
10. 10
    Cyrus McCormick

    Sold his mechanical reaper on credit to farmers who had none, and built International Harvester.
    467pts
11. 11
    Elisha Otis

    Demonstrated his safety brake by cutting the rope himself, and sold the vertical city.
    467pts
12. 12
    Guglielmo Marconi

    Turned radio into a shipping and naval service business before anyone else saw the market.
    343pts
13. 13
    George Eastman

    Sold cameras cheap and film dear, and invented the consumer photography business in the process.
    343pts
14. 14
    Charles Goodyear

    Discovered vulcanised rubber and died about $200,000 in debt.
    343pts
15. 15
    Werner von Siemens

    Founded an electrical firm in a Berlin backyard that is still a global industrial giant.
    343pts
16. 16
    Alexander Graham Bell

    His 1876 telephone patent became the foundation of the largest company in the world.
    0pts
17. 17
    Robert Noyce

    Co-invented the integrated circuit, then co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel, setting the flat, stock-option culture of Silicon Valley.
18. 18
    Eli Whitney

    His cotton gin was copied everywhere and earned him little, but a government musket contract built his fortune on interchangeable parts.
19. 19
    Edwin Land

    Invented instant photography and ran Polaroid for four decades, turning more than 500 patents into one of America's hottest stocks.
20. 20
    James Dyson

    Built 5,127 prototypes of a bagless vacuum, was turned down by manufacturers, made it himself and became one of Britain's richest men.
21. 21
    Richard Arkwright

    Patented the water frame and built the first water-powered cotton mills, becoming the father of the factory system and a very rich man.
22. 22
    Willis Carrier

    Invented modern air conditioning in 1902 and founded Carrier Corporation, which still sells cooling to the world more than a century later.
23. 23
    Soichiro Honda

    Self-taught mechanic who turned a motorised bicycle workshop into the world's largest motorcycle maker and a global car brand.
24. 24
    Kōnosuke Matsushita

    Started with an improved light socket in 1918 and built Panasonic, earning the title 'god of management' in Japan.
25. 25
    Charles Kettering

    Invented the electric starter, co-founded Delco and sold it to General Motors, where he ran research for twenty-seven years.
26. 26
    Henry Bessemer

    His cheap steelmaking process earned him a fortune in licence fees, and he built his own Sheffield works when licensees could not make it work.
27. 27
    Charles Martin Hall

    Discovered cheap aluminium smelting at 22 and helped found the company that became Alcoa, dying one of America's wealthiest men.
28. 28
    Leo Baekeland

    Sold his Velox photo paper to George Eastman for a fortune, then invented Bakelite and built the first plastics company around it.
29. 29
    Robert Bosch

    Turned a small Stuttgart workshop and a magneto ignition into the world's largest automotive supplier, while pioneering the eight-hour day.
30. 30
    George Pullman

    Designed the luxury sleeping car and rented it rather than selling it, building a railway empire and a company town in Illinois.
31. 31
    Ernest Solvay

    Belgian chemist whose ammonia-soda process made Solvay a multinational within decades and paid for the famous Solvay physics conferences.
32. 32
    Gail Borden

    Failed with a meat biscuit, then patented condensed milk in 1856 and supplied it to Union armies, founding the Borden dairy company.
33. 33
    Emile Berliner

    Invented the flat-disc gramophone and the microphone used in Bell telephones, and founded record companies on three continents.
34. 34
    Josiah Wedgwood

    Potter who invented jasperware, then invented modern marketing with showrooms, catalogues, royal endorsements and money-back guarantees.
35. 35
    Sakichi Toyoda

    Invented Japan's automatic power loom and sold its patent rights abroad, providing the money that started Toyota Motor.
36. 36
    Madam C. J. Walker

    Developed her own hair-care formulas and sold them through thousands of trained agents, becoming one of America's first self-made female millionaires.

Comments